Could Leonard Cohen have been a contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature?

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?
 
Dylan deserves it more, IMO, though Cohen was a powerful songwriter and poet (and as I recently learned, published novelist too!) Dylan's prize mainly lies in the fact that many of his songs, especially the ones from Blood on the Tracks that defy the laws of time and space in a way that I've never seen in Cohen's lyrics or anyone else's for that matter.
 
Certainly Dylan was first in line. The Singer<SONGWRITER superstar who made that genre become centerstage. So, he had to get it first.
Cohen could be next in line, but probably not to close after Dylan. Would change the category of the Price into MTV Music Awards. So he had to live a long time.
Getting it before Dylan is like George Martin getting it before Tolkien if both were alive.
 
Decades ago, even before he took Manhattan, Cohen won the Just Prize. I don't profess to speak for Norwegians.
 
Decades ago, even before he took Manhattan, Cohen won the Just Prize. I don't profess to speak for Norwegians.
Exactly, its not Cohen lacking the level, its the norwegians who had to move.
Dario Fo was a Big step, so was Dylan and it had to be Dylan before Cohen.
 
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