VINEYARD — and in the Song, the book's controlling double meaning. 'They made me keeper of the vineyards; my own vineyard I have not kept' (1:6) is literal in its first half and herself in its second, and the device is never explained. Vineyards are also Israel's standing prophetic image for the nation (Isaiah 5:1-7, the Song of the Vineyard; Psalm 80:8-16), which is one reason the allegorical reading of the Song came so naturally to both synagogue and church. → first discussed at Song of Solomon 1:6