He sends you [the mother] a poem and she's lost to you [the mother].
She continues:
Child with a child, pretending
Weary of lies you are sending home
So you sign all the papers in the family name
You're sad and you're sorry, but you're not ashamed
Little Green, have a happy ending.
Couldn't be clearer, or sadder.
Although I don't think she is playing with pronouns here, a very moving example of that was Earl Spencer's address at Diana's funeral, where he sometimes refers to "she", and sometimes to "you" when talking about (to) Diana. It's a tried and tested literary form, and often very moving, suggesting a splintered consciousness and emotional turmoil.
Sarah
At 4:42 PM -0500 01/31/2003, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
the responses to this question have been interesting, and, i thought, unsatisfactory. that line has always bothered me too, because, frankly, it makes no sense, and while the several interpretations that have been presented are interesting, they all seem to be stretches, in my opinion. there are three people in that verse. there's the guy who went to california. there's the singer who writes him a letter and there's the girl with the blue eyes. he, you and her. that's it. one can't start switching the pronouns around and still have coherency! the hard truth about that otherwise lovely song is that that particular line - "he sends you a poem and she's lost to you" is just plain sloppy.
