FRESHMAN COMPOSITION, RHETORIC, GRAMMAR II

&

INTRO. TO LITERARY RESEARCH & WRITING

INSTRUCTOR: James Maxfield

Use for Ex. #4

Song to a Seagull

by Joni Mitchell

Fly silly seabird,

no dreams can possess you,

no voices can blame you

for sun on your wings.

My gentle relations

have names they must call me

for loving the freedom

of all flying things.

Chorus:

I came to the city

and lived like old Crusoe

on an island of noise

in a cobblestone sea.

And the beaches were concrete,

and the stars paid a light bill,

and the blossoms hung false

on their store window trees.

Out of the city

and down to the seaside

to sun on my shoulders

and wind in my hair.

But sandcastles crumble

and hunger is human,

and humans are hungry

for worlds they can’t share.

I call to the seagull

who dives to the waters

and catches his silver-fine

dinner alone,

crying where are the footprints

that danced on these beaches

and the hands that cast wishes

that sunk like a stone?

out of reach, out of cry. (1966)

I Had a King

(by Joni Mitchell)

I had a king in a tenement castle

Lately he's taken to painting the pastel walls brown

He's taken the curtains down

He's swept with the broom of contempt

And the rooms have an empty ring

He's cleaned with the tears

Of an actor who fears for the laughter's sting—

I had a king dressed in drip-dry and paisley

Lately he's taken to saying I'm crazy and blind

He lives in another time

Ladies in gingham still blush

While he sings them of wars and wine

But I in my leather and lace

I can never become that kind—

I had a king in a salt-rusted carriage

Who carried me off to his country for marriage too soon

Beware of the power of moons

There's no one to blame

No there's no one to name as a traitor here

The king's on the road

And the queen's in the grove till the end of the year—

(1966)

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Last modified: 04/30/06