Rumours associated with Klein’s mental collapse were common, but this idea – that Klein’s silence might be read as a rebuke – was not spoken. In a different vein, hinting at Klein’s withdrawal from public life in the mid-fifties, Cohen adds: “His silence marks the beginning of a massive literary assault on this community.” We might wonder how this was received in the library hall. “Klein is the last Jewish writer,” Cohen told his audience, “whom the rabbis and business-men will love.” This is a harsh critique, though as prophecy it proved accurate. A priestly voice confirms traditional verities and provides communal comfort, as Klein did, in celebratory verse written for philanthropic dinners. The status of priest, according to Cohen, is the less admirable choice for the poet. Klein, he feels, played a dual role – that of prophet and priest, with a heavy accent on the latter. The talk’s date precedes Cohen’s transformation into a songwriter and performer, and in the context of the Jewish Public Library, Cohen reflects on a local poetic tradition, comparing himself with the older, but no longer active Montreal Jewish poet, A.M. In a 1964 lecture at the Montreal Jewish Public Library, Leonard Cohen considered the various responsibilities a poet might take in his community. Professor & Jewish Studies Graduate Program Director, Department of Religions and Cultures, Concordia University THE BOOKS THAT GOT AWAY: LEONARD COHEN’S VIEW OF THE POET’S ROLE It is this enigmatic quality of his writing that I personally find enormously appealing and refreshing in our world of quick answers and supposedly easy solutions. He raises many questions while rarely suggesting solutions. There is much murky moral water tread in Cohen’s works. He acknowledges his shortcomings, but is not sorry about being “curious” as opposed to “brave,” or “cold as a new razor blade.” He admits, among other things, to “kneeling through the dark” in his relationship with Marianne, even though he describes being held onto “like a crucifix.” It is perhaps the fact that he is so forthcoming about his own uncertainties that makes this song – and so many others – so engaging. This tension is also laid bare in “So Long, Marianne” in which Cohen unapologetically catalogues the differences between what could and should be. We are privy to all of the gradations of this struggle, and are confronted regularly by possibilities of what could or should be, and then by what is. However, Cohen’s lyrics show us more than just the extremes: as elsewhere in Cohen’s writing, we have here the colour-rich story of someone straining against, but operating (sometimes barely) within, the constraints of their life and relationships with others.
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In “Bird on the Wire” it is demonstrated in various images, such as a bird and a worm (representative of freedom and the natural world – of the air and the earth) perched on a wire and stuck on a hook respectively (physical manifestations of civilization and industry) and a drunk (disorder) singing in a midnight choir (order). It is the kind of juxtaposition that Cohen embraced throughout his writing. The writing of the song began on a remote island in Greece, and ended in a motel room in Hollywood: quite a juxtaposition. The first of our selections, “Bird on the Wire” was composed in the late 60s. Pratt Professor of Canadian Literature, University of Toronto, Department of English & Parliamentary Poet Laureateħth Parliamentary Poet Laureate (2016-17)ĮNIGMATIC JUXTAPOSITION IN “BIRD ON THE WIRE” AND “SO LONG, MARIANNE”Ĭoordinator, VIVA! Youth Singers of TorontoĪlthough both “Bird on the Wire” and “So Long, Marianne” come from the same period in Cohen’s life, the themes the explored were recurring motifs throughout Cohen’s work. George Elliott Clarke, Laura Menard, Norman Ravvin & Leo Zaibert) Į.J.