Camille Paglia says that Joni’s Mitchell’s song “Woodstock” is one of the few songs from the ‘60s that stands up as a poem. You might know it from Crosby, Still, Nash and Young’s version in 1970.
In Paglia’s view, if you ignore the music and put the lyrics on the page, “Woodstock” works as a poem. It compares favorably with other poems that said something about the dreams of the era.
I think it’s an intriguing idea but wasn’t convinced about “Woodstock.” I’d choose other poems.
I think we build canons of literature like we build other collections. Some of us started by collecting marbles, old bird’s nests and baseball cards. The obvious problem with a shared collection is that individual taste varies so much.
It was always astonishing when I found someone who was interested in a writer that I was interested in. That seemed like a rare occurrence.
Paglia says when she was in high school, she adored Gerard Manley Hopkins and Edna St. Vincent Millay and loathed Robert Frost.
Paglia and I would not have been kindred spirits in high school.
• Sources: Camille Paglia, Break, Blow, Burn; New York: Pantheon Books, 2005, pp. ix and 225-32. For a previous note on Paglia’s view about canons, see “Specimens in a collection,” Jan. 16, 2024.
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