It was last Wednesday, when I joined hundreds of other Torontonians in singing seven of the sadly departed Leonard Cohen's songs, that I regained my appreciation of Cohen as a poet. Cohen did wonderful things with language, writing smartly about the late modern condition and with a wonderful sense of the absurd.
This year, Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize in Literature on the strength of his song lyrics. Is it all imaginable that Cohen could have won that same prize on the basis of his work, lyrical and prose? Would Cohen have needed more work? Would the prize committee have to have gained an appreciation of the power of the song lyric earlier?
This year, Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize in Literature on the strength of his song lyrics. Is it all imaginable that Cohen could have won that same prize on the basis of his work, lyrical and prose? Would Cohen have needed more work? Would the prize committee have to have gained an appreciation of the power of the song lyric earlier?