(the parent article is on respondislam.net website)

The majority scholarly consensus is that the Song is post-exilic, however it would be possible that earlier Songs were collated by a post-exilic author and hence the reason for the post-exilic language markers. Arguments form an earlier first millennium date as given in the NRSV Study Bible (p1091) are the fact that the genre parallels Egyptian and other ANE love poetry and further that v. 6:4 suggests that at the time of writing Tirzah was one of the two grand cities of Israel (comparable to Jerusalem) which supports a an early first millennium BC date. It goes into further details in the notes and also supplies examples of Egyptian love poetry (p.1093).

The NJBC writes (p463): “Remarkably both synagogue and church agree on a religious interpretation: Cant refers to the love of the LORD for his people or, for Christians to the love of the Lord for the church (or the individual soul). This view was supported by the there of the marriage between the Lord and Israel (Hos1-3, Isa 62:5, etc.) Hence the Targum treated the song as an allegory on the history of Israel, from the exodus on. For Christians, Origen set the pattern for allegory in his works..”

In fact this is a good occasion to undertake some study of the Song itself. This is from the NJBC (2nd ed., p462-3):

the work is dramatic in the sense that there is a dialogue between the following three speakers: a woman, a man and the daughters of Jerusalem (so if sing, the NRSV Study Bible states that it would contain sections of the woman or man singing solo, duets between them, and the women of Jerusalem singing in chorus [p.1091])

several literary forms appear: poems of yearning… teasing… admiration… reminiscence… boasting… and description of physical charms (i’ve left out the verses numbers).

The overall outline of the Song is given as (again leaving out verse numbers):

1. Superscription (which ascribes it to Solomon)>
2. Introduction
3. Dialogue between the lovers
4. Reminiscence
5. Loss and discovery
6. Solomon’s wedding procession
7. Dialogue between the women and the daughters
8. Dialogue between lovers
9. Dialogue
10. Appendixes