<P> "Send In the Clowns" is a song written by Stephen Sondheim for the 1973 musical A Little Night Music, an adaptation of Ingmar Bergman's film Smiles of a Summer Night . It is a ballad from Act Two, in which the character Desirée reflects on the ironies and disappointments of her life . Among other things, she looks back on an affair years earlier with the lawyer Fredrik, who was deeply in love with her but whose marriage proposals she had rejected . Meeting him after so long, she realizes she is in love with him and finally ready to marry him, but now it is he who rejects her: he is in an unconsummated marriage with a much younger woman . Desirée proposes marriage to rescue him from this situation, but he declines, citing his dedication to his bride . Reacting to his rejection, Desirée sings this song . The song is later reprised as a coda after Fredrik's young wife runs away with his son, and Fredrik is finally free to accept Desirée's offer . </P> <P> Sondheim wrote the song specifically for Glynis Johns, who created the role of Desirée on Broadway . The song is structured with four verses and a bridge, and uses a complex compound meter . It became Sondheim's most popular song after Frank Sinatra recorded it in 1973 and Judy Collins' version charted in 1975 and 1977 . Subsequently, numerous other artists recorded the song, and it has become a jazz standard . </P>

The meaning of the song send in the clowns
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