Analyze the song "The Circle Game" by Joni Mitchell. Include the tone, mood, poetic devices used in the poem and what it says about identity. ...

In 1970, at
a concert in London, Joni Mitchell claimed that she wrote this song in response to Neil Young's
song "Sugar Mountain." Young wrote the song about lamenting losing his youth:
specifically in response to turning 21 and being too old to go to his favorite club. Mitchell
said she wrote "The Circle Game" for Young: the songs have similar themes.
(Interesting to note that the song is about youth and time passing and that she claimed to have
written it for "Young.") 

"The Circle Game" is about
youth, nostalgia, regret, hope, and the passage of time. The tone and mood fluctuate between
nostalgia, regret, and hope. The first stanza/verse starts at the beginning of life. The child
is initially full of wonder. It is a rural, natural scene characteristic of the Romantic poets
(i. e. Wordsworth and Keats) where the child is emotionally affected by his natural
surroundings. Theestablishes the main theme of the song/poem: the passage of time. Mitchell uses
theof a carousel...