"[3] Music professor Lloyd Whitesell describes it as "a wry meditation on the transience of love and moral certainty.
[2] The opening lines of the first verse, "Everything comes and goes/marked by lovers and styles of clothes," set the tone for the song.
[3] Sean Nelson describes the lyrics as being "terse but true, general but suggestive, clever but light, and they rhyme," and also claims that with only those two lines Mitchell could have "had a pretty good song on her hands.
[3] This realization is underscored by David Crosby and Susan Webb joining Mitchell to sing the line.
[3] Music journalist Mark Bego describes Mitchell's playing as being like a jazz solo.