When confronted with poetry indifferents - I have one simple riposte: song. You listen to music don't you? You like listening to music? You sing along to the lyrics? Well, don't you see - you're a poetry lover too!
Poetry comes in all forms, including song. Many poems have been turned into song and vice-versa. They are both flip sides of the one coin. Some of the best poets are songwriters and indeed, some of the best songwriters are known as poets in their own right: Bob Dylan many people would say, and most definitely this man, Leonard Cohen, who doesn't just produce albums, but publish poetry collections too.
Poetry comes in all forms, including song. Many poems have been turned into song and vice-versa. They are both flip sides of the one coin. Some of the best poets are songwriters and indeed, some of the best songwriters are known as poets in their own right: Bob Dylan many people would say, and most definitely this man, Leonard Cohen, who doesn't just produce albums, but publish poetry collections too.
Hallelujah is his best-known song and one of the most poetic songs ever written, with an eloquence and a vision that is more poetry than song and that maybe explains it being labelled as one of the greatest songs of all times. Every line carries so much weight of emotion and truth - 'but all I ever learned from love/Was how to shoot somebody who outdrew you' which the score brings to an sublime height - it's hard not to read into it as we would with a poem.
It has been performed by a variety of artists as well as Cohen himself, but the best, the most melancholy and haunting has to be Jeff Buckley's version, who renders it as powerful and affecting as any of literature's greatest verses.
It has been performed by a variety of artists as well as Cohen himself, but the best, the most melancholy and haunting has to be Jeff Buckley's version, who renders it as powerful and affecting as any of literature's greatest verses.
Hallelujah - Leonard Cohen
Now I've heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do you?
It goes like this
The fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah,
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Your faith was strong, but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you
She tied you
To a kitchen chair
She broke your throne and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah,
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
(You say I took the Name in vain
I don't even know the Name
But if I did, well really, what's it to you?
There's a blaze of light
In every word
It doesn't matter which you heard
The holy or the broken Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah,
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
I did my best, it wasn't much
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch
I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you
And even though
It all went wrong
I'll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah,
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah...)
*additional lyrics as per Cohen Live (and Jeff Buckley et al)
Baby I've been here before
I know this room, I've walked this floor
I used to live alone before I knew you
I've seen your flag on the marble arch
love is not a victory march
it's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
There was a time you let me know
What's really going on below
but now you never show it to me, do you?
And remember when I moved in you
the holy dove was moving too
And every breath we drew was Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Maybe there's a God above
but all I ever learned from love
Was how to shoot somebody who outdrew you
It's not a cry you hear tonight
It's not some pilgrim who's seen the light
it's a cold and it's a lonely(/broken )Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah,
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah,
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah,
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Love, love, love both the poem and Buckley's performance. Brilliant!
ReplyDeleteThanks Mary. Absolutely brilliant! One of my favourite ever songs.
DeleteAgree with you totally. Hallelujah by Cohen and Buckley are my two favourite ever performances. And also agree with you that songwriting is poetry itself. Many thanks for such a beautiful post.
ReplyDeleteGreetings from London.
Thank you very much! Glad you enjoyed it. Always nice to hear from a new reader!
DeleteI will happily begin a debate, ask a question, genuinely interest myself in trying to fathom what people see in Leonard Cohen? I see dark and dreary self pity, and for the life of me cannot see the romance. Anyone? Carmel
ReplyDeleteWell Carmel, whatever about the rest of his work - it can't be denied that 'Hallelujah' is one of the most poetic and beautiful songs ever written! - beautiful for its poignant portrayal of pain and the transcending of it in verse until it becomes a state of grace - hence the title. And poetic in its use of metaphorical language and allusion.
ReplyDeleteDid you know Leonard Cohen was recently awarded the PEN New England award for Songs of Literary Excellence?
I think his work is known for its 'Romanticism' - the style - rather than the literal 'romance'- i.e it contains the prominent features of the Romantic style of literature: the exploration of intimate feeling, an emphasis on the individual's place in and reaction to the world and the importance of the imagination in contemplating it, a pursuit of beauty and grace; all played out in lyrical, sometimes courtly verse.
Plus, if you look at all the 'great' songs or music or literature or art, there is always a dark element of pain and heartbreak, a personal catharsis on the part of the artist that transforms their personal work into one of great universal significance.
Phew! - Is that debate-like enough for you? ;)
- Siobhán
PS/ I did a blog once on the difference between romantic and Romantic if you want to check it out! -
www.a-blog-of-ones-own.blogspot.ie/2012/02/romantics-creed.html