Isn't it rich?
Are we a pair?
Me here at last on the ground,
You in mid-air,
Where are the clowns?
Isn't it bliss?
Don't you approve?
One who keeps tearing around,
One who can't move,
Where are the clowns?
There ought to be clowns?
Just when I'd stopped opening doors,
Finally knowing the one that I wanted was yours
Making my entrance again with my usual flair
Sure of my lines
No one is there
Don't you love farce?
My fault, I fear
I thought that you'd want what I want
Sorry, my dear!
But where are the clowns
Send in the clowns
Don't bother, they're here
Isn't it rich?
Isn't it queer?
Losing my timing this late in my career
But where are the clowns?
There ought to be clowns
Well, maybe next year
Are we a pair?
Me here at last on the ground,
You in mid-air,
Where are the clowns?
Isn't it bliss?
Don't you approve?
One who keeps tearing around,
One who can't move,
Where are the clowns?
There ought to be clowns?
Just when I'd stopped opening doors,
Finally knowing the one that I wanted was yours
Making my entrance again with my usual flair
Sure of my lines
No one is there
Don't you love farce?
My fault, I fear
I thought that you'd want what I want
Sorry, my dear!
But where are the clowns
Send in the clowns
Don't bother, they're here
Isn't it rich?
Isn't it queer?
Losing my timing this late in my career
But where are the clowns?
There ought to be clowns
Well, maybe next year
Lyrics submitted by LuckyWilshire, edited by fridgeelephant
"Send In The Clowns" as written by Stephen Sondheim
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Years later, they find each other. Fredrik has a very young and very beautiful (but very naive) wife. Desiree decides that she is going to seduce him and win him back because she is finally ready to give up all of her little affairs and settle down. She invites him to her mother's enormous estate in the country.
Much to her dismay, when she asks him if he will share with her a "coherent existence after so many years of muddle," he actually says no. He loves Desiree when his eyes are open, but when his eyes are not open -- which is most of the time -- he loves his young wife.
"Send in the Clowns" is Desiree's response to this rejection. She is disgusted with herself for having turned down his overtures when she was younger, but she is also bemused by the absurd irony. Since she is a person of the theater, she is used to having comedic moments (clowns) sent in to save a show that is failing. She says "send in the clowns" because she feels that the situation is so devastating and ridiculous that "there ought to be clowns." But there are already clowns -- She and Fredrik are the clowns; the fools. After she sings "Don't bother -- they're here," Fredrik apologizes to her and leaves the room.
She sings the last verse to herself. She is laughing at herself and crying for herself at the same time. Desiree, the "one who keeps tearing around," has lost her youthful mask.
But there's soooooooooo many ways this song can be interpreted, IMHO. It's just a great universally sad song.
Two of my favorite ways to interpret it are thusly:
1.) a naive, idealistic 60s child who is upset with herself for having been so naive about her beloved country of America prior to Vietnam. I find this interpretative view to be particularly poignant because of Collins' idealistic 60s crowd.
2.) a naive person who has looked for the Christian God all her life at this point, and only just now realized He's not the ostentatious God some so-called "believers" make Him out to be.
The hinting of a circus analogy is perfect - I picture the trapeze artist above it all in her own world, leaving the people on the ground behind in her search for new thrills. Then the high flyer grows weary of being up there alone and finally comes down looking for company, only to find that the one who has been waiting for her on the ground has flown away himself. All the while the clowns are back stage ready to rush out and save the show when someone falls.
A very moving and emotional song. My favourite by Judy Collins.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/…
Right now the sad side of this song resonates with parts of my life... but there is a wistful and self-deprecating humour to it that is not hopeless to me at all.
clowns trancend tragedy
do the work and
turn it into comedy
humor is the best medicine