Both Sides Now by Joni Mitchell

    Through the use of dual perspectives, Joni Mitchell's Both Sides Now shifts from naïve and hopeful about life and love to being experienced but disillusioned by them in order to suggest that "something's lost and something's gained in living every day."  Mitchell uses the example in the third stanza that she has lost friends on her way to figuring out life and love. She was able to gain some insight on what love actually is, yet she lost friends on her way there. The way she suggests that something is gained and lost in the circle of life is through imagery and different stages of her life. All throughout she speaks of not knowing what life is to not knowing what love is and still not knowing despite the fact that she has had many experiences. I, personally, can relate this to my own life because when she sings about looking at life from both sides, although I haven’t really lived very long I can see the vast difference in my views from when I was a little kid. What I relate to in the song is when she goes from being a child to being a young adult I can feel the way she is describing. The imagery she uses to describe herself as a child amplifies the reality of the song. Every human goes through different stages of life. Mitchell takes her audience through the stages by using imaginative examples. By using the motif of looking at things from both sides, at least in my opinion, means that as she grew up her views on certain topics have changed. She goes from childhood thinking that all the world is just ice cream castles and like a fairy tale, to slowly realizing that the world is more abstract than she once had thought as a young child.

"Hallelujah"

             Well I heard there was a secret chord

that David played and it pleased the Lord

This is an illusion to the bible where David was a peasant who later became king. Although his many bad deeds he always was honest and was loved by the lord

But you don't really care for music, do you?

I feel like you could take it as the literal way where the story is about David but my interpretation of the song without any of the background information I would say that it means that no matter what this guy can’t do anything right for the girl. The music that was pleasing to the lord, the highest symbol in every aspect of life, wasn’t even good enough

Well it goes like this:

The fourth, the fifth,

The minor fall and the major lift

The baffled king composing Hallelujah

compared to the end of the song this hallelujah has a good connotation and it means that the king gave his praise after hearing the song

Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah...

Your faith was strong but you needed proof

You saw her bathing on the roof

Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you

The beauty of this girl is so strong that he forgets that she isn’t good for him and that the relationship is that of a toxic one. This is also personification giving the beauty and moonlight human like qualities like overthrowing him as if he’s a king (my interpretation of it even though I know it’s about David). He let his guard down when he saw her beauty and it overthrew him like it was opposing him and was like a warrior or something.

She tied you to her kitchen chair

The girl is trying to tie him down and get him to conform to what she wants him to be like.

She broke your throne and she cut your hair

This is an allusion to Samson, the longer his hair the stronger he was so when “she” cut his hair is meaning that she is taking away his manliness or his personality and voice. If he’s being seen as a king then by breaking his throne she would be knocking him down and controlling him.

And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

This means that she was almost demanding or forcing him to praise her by "drawing" it from his lips.

Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah...

Baby I've been here before

I've seen this room and I've walked this floor

This guy has seen the room and by room it means the girl which is a metaphor, and the floor is a metaphor for how he’s seen how these relationships turn out and how it’s not good for people.

I used to live alone before I knew you

And I've seen your flag on the marble arch

A flag is symbolic of either defeat by surrendering or victory, in this case it is victory. With her flag hanging it means that she sees it as her winning that she “conquered” him and got him to be how she expected/wanted him to be

and love is not a victory march

This means that love isn’t supposed to be something that you show off or you win or lose, the relationship was supposed to be equal but this girl made it almost her goal to “win”

It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah

The prayer of him being able to love this girl and have them be equal and happy is basically broken, hence the cold and broken prayer that will most likely never be answered

Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah...

there was a time when you let me know

What's really going on below

There was a time in their relationship before she started to drift away that they could talk and know what was going on in each other’s heads.

But now you never show that to me, do you?

The girl is almost pushing him away not talking to him as they used to

But remember when I moved in you

And the holy dove was moving too

And every breath we drew was Hallelujah

They used to have something that was peaceful and amazing (the dove is a symbol of peace) and here hallelujah has a positive connotation meaning that they breathed they had what seemed like something that wouldn’t change

Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah...

Maybe there's a God above

But all I've ever learned from love

Was how to shoot somebody who outdrew you

An allusion to the old west where they would have a showdown and whoever pulled their gun first would win. By using this reference he means that all he ever learned from love was at the first sign of anyone pushing away from him he’d push away immediately to protect himself.

And it's not a cry that you hear at night

It's not somebody who's seen the light

The light is a metaphor for other relationships like this and how somebody who had been through it would be more apprehensive in the situation

It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah

Repetition to stress that the relationship is still cold and broken and it has no love

Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah...

Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah...

Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah

Hallelujah, hallelujah

   

A device that Leonard Cohen used in this song is allusion. Throughout the song he makes many biblical references many of which involve David. He tells a story of David while also making it relatable to the modern day. In the first verse he states “that David played and he pleased the lord” which is alluding to how David was mostly a bad person but because of how honest he was he was forgiven. He also alludes to Samson and when it says cut your hair it is alluding to the story of how the longer his hair was the stronger he was and by in the song cutting the speaker’s hair the girl is taking away his strength to be his own person

Another device used is metaphor. By mentioning the dove it is a metaphor/symbol of peace which is useful to describe what they once had that had disappeared. He says hallelujah which is a metaphor for their relationship and its hanging on the edge like a prayer. The music that she doesn't like is a metaphor for how the girl is never happy with anything he does and he can't please her.

The last device is repetition. The whole chorus is basically saying hallelujah which like I said in the paragraph above is to say that they're or atleast he is praying for the relationship to succeed. By saying he drew the hallelujah it means that the girl is pulling it from him