I agree with the "weariness of life" interpretation. I didn't know this poem before, but I always thought that the best thing in the Joni Mitchell songbook was the refrain:
I wish I had a river
I could skate away on
This is sung to a lovely melody that many singers have rendered very beautifully.
In the Joni Mitchell song, it is clearly an act of weariness, regret, and a desire to escape what's bothering her (tritely, "I made my baby cry"). It's maybe the only well-known sad Christmas song, too.
I wonder if Joni knew about the Mew poem?
|