Camille Paglia is a culture critic and professor of humanities and media studies at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. A founding contributor for Salon.com, she publishes articles in dozens of magazines and newspapers worldwide, and her most recent book is Glittering Images: A Journey Through Art from Egypt to Star Wars (2012). This essay on Joni Mitchell comes from her book, Break, Blow, Burn: Camille Paglia Reads Forty-Three of the World’s Best Poems (2005). Mitchell is the only songwriter among this group of the world’s best poets; Paglia defends her choice of the singer, and through her analysis of the song “Woodstock,” reveals the complexity of Mitchell’s writing. The song lyrics are reprinted before the essay.

Reading the Genre

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