Even your best love is only a rapturous allegory. Here we have a factual situation (love or marriage) carrying symbolic meaning for those involved in that situation and for others. This is a case of a particular image (real marriage) that symbolises an idea but also serve as a set of practices or institutions that may inspire one to understand or pursue that ideal. In this case, the ideal is the role of masculine and feminine drives within the total health of both organism and culture. There is a similar use of the concept of allegory.