The Hissing of Summer Lawns

This song is about a woman who has apparently married a very well-to-do man. She may be, to him at least, a trophy wife, and he has set her a up in a mansion on a hill with a fence around it to protect her from the world. There is a certain melancholy to the song, and we are given to believe that the mansion is very much a prison to her, but rather than lose the privilege and prestige inherent in her marriage, she chooses to remain in that prison.

The "hissing of summer lawns" refers to the sprinklers that water the lawns of the upper class in Bel Air, a rich enclave of Los Angeles. Mitchell bought a house there in 1974; the inside cover of the album contains a picture of her in her pool.