If you parse it out line by line, the song works well in most parts:
Spring was never waiting for us, girl
It ran one step ahead
As we followed in the dance
Okay, that makes sense. Then the metaphor goes in the wrong direction. I’m not a poet, or a songwriter, but here’s one way to pull it back
*Between the parted pages and were pressed
In life’s sweet, bitter book
Like a feather from a nest *
Now we get to the real trainwreck, with the park and the cake and the rain and all that. But there’s still some vivid imagery we should try to preserve.
Our love died there in MacArthur Park
Someone left the cake out in the pouring rain
The sweet, green icing flowing down
I don’t think that I can take it
'Cause it took so long to bake it
And I’ll never have that recipe again
Oh no!
We throw the word “love” in so people understand IT’S A SONG ABOUT A BREAKUP, NOT A CAKE. The flip a couple of lines so that people understand 1) Love is like a cake 2) that’s falling apart and 3) really hard to put back together.
By the way, I saw Richard Harris on stage in Camelot. That hyperemotive delivery may not work well on a record, but it’s electrifying in a theater.