Dove of the king’s palace

This poem, a tahanun, seems to be a penitential prayer for the season around the Days of Awe, as the last line of the poem seems to flow straight into the beginning of the fixed passage in the selihot liturgy that begins “O our master in heaven, we supplicate you!” The poem is a sustained metaphor of the Jewish people as a dove, beloved by the king (God), who has been expelled from her dovecote (Jerusalem) for a minor infraction, and is navigating a dangerous exile among birds of prey (the nations). Sustained metaphors like this are very rare in piyyutim, especially in northern Europe. The speaker prays for the rise of “the leader of all birds,” a reference to a resurrected King David, based on a passage in the midrashic Chapters of R. Eliezer (Pirke de-Rabbi Eliezer). After this, the final lines of the poem drop the dove metaphor entirely.