Re: "We're are living 'neath the great Big Dipper..."

While I did say to myself, when I first heard this line: "Hey! What about the southern hemisphere folks?!", this is also one of the lines that I like simply for its sound. The syllable endings "T" , hard "G" and "P" really give a nice, crisp definition to the words that balances nicely with the softer consonant sounds of:

"We are swimming in the stream together"

And she was living 'neath the Big Dipper when she wrote it... Also, in American history, this constellation has special relavance in the folk tradition because of its association in slave songs with the journey north to freedom [as in "Follow the Drinking Gourd"]. I don't know if she she had that in mind, consciously (or subconsciously, for that matter), when she wrote it, but it's an association that comes to my mind, when I sing it or hear it, and I think it adds to the song.

Re: "Imperfection, it be my crime."

It's the word "crime" that gets to me, but I understand the meaning of that whole verse to be: "I'm not perfect, but my life is moving toward perfection, and in the meantime, I'll remind myself not to be arrogant" Even though "crime" evokes a feeling of shame and punishment that I don't think quite fits with the overall message of the song, it's a good pick for the sound of it.

Throughout this song, she uses both end-rhyme words ("heart" "part", "rain" "pain") and internal, assonance rhyme words ("sign" "time", "together" "forever"). "Crime" and "time" are end-rhyme (argh, make it stop!) words, but they lines don't hit you over the head with it. (I was going to say that she chose the word 'crime' for its internal rhyme, until I went back to the top of this thread and actually read the lyrics.

In short: While I may have nits to pick with these two lines as stand-alone ideas, they work well in the song as a whole.

I was just in a nit picking mood, back there ...

(can you blame me? The nits are so tasty and sweet this time of year)

And yes, I was one of those damned English Majors! ;-)`