The Circle Game
Joni Mitchell
Caught a dragonfly inside a jar
Fearful when the sky was full of thunder
And tearful at the falling of a star
And the painted ponies go up and down
We’re captive on the carousel of time
We can’t return, we can only look
Behind, from where we came
And go round and round and round, in the circle game
Skated over ten clear frozen streams
Words like, “When you’re older” must appease him
And promises of someday make his dreams
And the painted ponies go up and down
We’re captive on the carousel of time
We can’t return, we can only look
Behind, from where we came
And go round and round and round, in the circle game
Cartwheels turn to car wheels through the town
And they tell him, “Take your time, it won’t be long now
‘Til you drag your feet to slow the circles down”
And the painted ponies go up and down
We’re captive on the carousel of time
We can’t return, we can only look
Behind, from where we came
And go round and round and round, in the circle game
Though his dreams have lost some grandeur coming true
There’ll be new dreams, maybe better dreams and plenty
Before the last revolving year is through
And the painted ponies go up and down
We’re captive on the carousel of time
We can’t return, we can only look
Behind, from where we came
And go round and round and round, in the circle game
And go round and round and round, in the circle game
The Circle of Life
Elton John
And, blinking, step into the sun
There’s more to see than can ever be seen
More to do than can ever be done
There’s far too much to take in here
More to find than can ever be found
But the sun rolling high
Through the sapphire sky
Keeps great and small on the endless round
And it moves us all
Through despair and hope
Through faith and love
‘Til we find our place
On the path unwinding
In the circle
The circle of life
Will the Circle Be Unbroken
Peter Yarrow, Mary Travers
Written during the Viet Nam War – A War Protest Song
So I told him, that he better shut his mouth
And do his job like a man,
And he answered, listen father,
I will never kill another,
Thinks he’s better than his brother who died
What the hell does he think he’s doing,
To his father who brought him up right
[Chorus]
Take a place on the great mandala
As it moves through your brief moment in time,
We’ll lose now, you must choose now
And if you lose you’re only losing your life
Tell the jailer not to bother, with his meal
Of bread and water today
He is fasting, till the killings over
He’s a modern, thinks he’s a prophet
But he’s a coward, he’s just playing the game
He can’t do it, he can’t change it
And it;s been going on for ten thousand years
[Chorus]
What’s that rumbling, in the courtyard
Seven thousand faces are turned to the gate
What’s that hey’re saying? “kill the traitor”
Kill the traitor,
Kill the traitor, kill the traitor
[Chorus]
Tell the people they are safe now,
Our guns stopped him, now he lies still in his cell
That has gagged all his accusations,
We are free now, you can kill now
You can hate now, now we can end the world
We’re not guilty he was crazy
And it’s been going on for ten thousand years
[Chorus]
[Repeats till fade]
And if you lose your only losing your life
Assignment 1: Read the Information in the Blog Post Circes as Symbols.
Assignment2 – Paper 3 : Tell how routine behavior forms traditions. Discuss Tradition. Find sources on the internet to help you define tradition. Be sure to put direct quotes within quotation marks and credit the sources; Tell how routines and traditions can be good. For instance, are holiday traditions good? Tell how routines and traditions can become numbing–how they might produce unthinking and insensitive people. Review the following works and tell how routine or cyclical behavior impacted the people in those works: Create a Bibliography of your sources.
Soldier’s Home by Ernest Hemingway – Focus on Setting and Home as A Literary Theme – Class 2 Comp 2