Poem Analysis

TimH1 · Post by **TimH1** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 5:16 am

hi, im new to this board. I'm a grade 12 english student and im doing a project on Leonard Cohen poems. For the project i have to analyze three of his poems. The poems I have chosen to analyze are all from the book "Flowers for Hitler" and are the following;

This could be my little
book about love
if I wrote it--
but my good demon said:
'Lay off documents!'
Everybody was watching me
burn my books--
I swung my liberty torch
happy as a gestapo brute;
the only thing I wanted to save
was a scar
a burn or two--
but my good demon said:
'Lay off documents!
The fire's not important!'
The pile was safely blazing.
I went home to take a bath.
I phoned my grandmother.
She is suffering from arthritis.
'Keep well,' I said, 'don't mind the pain.'
'You neither,' she said.
Hours later I wondered
did she mean
don't mind my pain
or don't mind her pain?
Whereupon my good demon said:
'Is that all you can do?'
Well was it?
Was it all I could do?
There was the old lady
eating alone, thinking about
Prince Albert, Flanders Field,
Kishenev, her fingers too sore
for TV knobs;
but how could I get there ?
The books were gone
my address lists--
My good demon said again:
'Lay off documents!
You know how to get there!'
And suddenly I did!
I remembered it from memory!
I found her
pouring over the royal family tree,
'Grandma,'
I almost said,
'you've got it upside down--'
'Take a look,' she said,
'it only goes to George V.'
'That's far enough
you sweet old blood!'
'You're right!' she sang
and burned the
London Illustrated Souvenir
I did not understand
the day it was
till I looked outside
and saw a fire in every
window on the street
and crowds of humans
crazy to talk
and cats and dogs and birds
smiling at each other!

Waiting for Marianne from "Flowers for Hitler"
I have lost a telephone
with your smell in it

I am living beside the radio
all the stations at once
but I pick out a Polish lullaby
I pick it out of the static
it fades I wait I keep the beat
it comes back almost alseep

Did you take the telephone
knowing I'd sniff it immoderately
maybe heat up the plastic
to get all the crumbs of your breath

and if you won't come back
how will you phone to say
you won't come back
so that I could at least argue

I Have Not Lingered In European Monosteries from "The Spice-Box of Earth"
I Have Not Lingered In European Monosteries
and discovered among the tall grasses tombs of knights
who fell as beautifully as their ballads tell;
I have not parted the grasses
or purposefully left them thatched.

I have not held my breath
so that I might hear the breathing of God
or tamed my heartbeat with an exercise,
or starved for visions.
Although I have watched him often
I have not become the heron,
leaving my body on the shore,
and I have not become the luminous trout,
leaving my body in the air.

I have not worshipped wounds and relics,
or combs of iron,
or bodies wrapped and burnt in scrolls.

I have not been unhappy for ten thousands years.
During the day I laugh and during the night I sleep.
My favourite cooks prepare my meals,
my body cleans and repairs itself,
and all my work goes well.

My lady can sleep from "The Spice-Box of Earth"
My lady can sleep
Upon a handkerchief
Or if it be Fall
Upon a fallen leaf.

I have seen the hunters
kneel before her hem
Even in her sleep
She turns away from them.

The only gift they offer
Is their abiding grief
I pull out my pockets
For a handkerchief or leaf.

I'm not asking anyone to do my project for me, I just need some insight on what these poems are about, because they are very confusing to me. I beleive the first one, "Milenium" could be about are dependence on technology, because he keeps burning the documents, and in one instance he burns his address book, and then remebers where to go. I know I could be way off, please somebody help me.
thanx in advance

linda_lakeside · Post by **linda_lakeside** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 5:28 am

Hi there,

I don't know when your project is due, but if I were you, I'd be reading as much about Leonard and his work as I could. I would be thinking "what does that mean to me" and "why". Then, I would put my conclusions and perceptions on my computer, print it, and hope I made a good project happen.

I wouldn't stop there, either. I'd continue to read Leonard, for no other reason but "because I want to".

Good luck with your project! I hope you find your answers in the work. It will be worth it.

Regards,
Linda.

TimH1 · Post by **TimH1** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 5:42 am

thanx for the tip, i have read these poems over a thousand times, and it i have some ideas what they could be about, however my ideas always seem to only be true at certain parts in the poem... like the one i said above..about the millenium poem possibly being about our dependence on technology and such, rather than using our brain, and i say that because he burns his address book and then remebers how to get to his grandmas, and also because his grandma was reading a book upside down which indicates she wasnt really thinking, and then she burns the book, but i do not understand what the opening and closing of this poem have to do with that idea, and i'm stumped

tomsakic · Post by **tomsakic** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 12:02 pm

If there is a moment in Flowers that most perfectly encapsulates or enunciates the postmodern attitude toward media and technology, toward the interpenetration of technology and the body that McLuhan forecast and that we now call "cyberpunk," it is probably the opening lines to "Waiting for Marianne": "I have lost a telephone / with your smell in it." The lines are, as is a lot of Cohen in this book, faintly carnal and at the same time sentimental in the trashiest Harlequin romance sense. But they also announce a full break with the modernist fear of media and technology (a fear which, to be sure, is mostly to be found in the high modernism of Eliot, Pound, and Klein).

That's just a possible scholar help which fix well with your notion "about our dependence on technology" - it's from essay by Clint Burnham, How postmodern is Cohen's poetry?, delivered at Leonard Cohen Conference at Red Deer College in 1993. (complete proceedings are available online at Canadian Poetry site.)

jurica · Post by **jurica** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 1:27 pm

i'll have to look trough the collection when i get home and then i'll post some oppinions (i don't see how something i may now write without any investigation may help you). i hope it will not be late by then.

TimH1 · Post by **TimH1** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 4:11 am

anyone got anything?....its due tomorow, pleeeeassseee help

lizzytysh · Post by **lizzytysh** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 9:36 pm

WoW, Tim, if you're still around. I must say that, at that late a date, March 31 for something due on April 2, I'd have switched to shorter and 'simpler' poems [if such a thing is possible with LC

] ~ and started over. Too late to be asking for help, if you've only gotten as [not-]far as you'd gotten at the point of your posting this request.

I'm curious to know what you did, and how you did ~ and if you're still around.

~ Lizzytysh

linda_lakeside · Post by **linda_lakeside** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 9:43 pm

Hi Lizzy ~

I remember this fellow and couldn't agree with you more on his choice of material and bad timing, as it were. Let's hope it brought him into Leonard's world and we have another LC fan. Or....

Let us know TimH1 ... if you're still around, that is. Hope all went well. If not, well, come back and learn some more.

Linda.

lizzytysh · Post by **lizzytysh** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 9:49 pm

Yep ~ we'll see. Hope he doesn't hold it against Leonard if he didn't get a good grade. Sorta like choosing Ulysses [not a link, Linda

] the night before a book report is due.

Well, he might be running behind, but the good news is that I'm catching up

.

linda_lakeside · Post by **linda_lakeside** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 9:56 pm

Lizzy, if you start changing your book titles to the colour blue, I'm going to be very cranky, not to mention confused.

Linda.

jurica · Post by **jurica** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 2:14 pm

why do so many people come to this board, post a "i need help analysing this or that" and never come back. they never post THEIR oppinions.

linda_lakeside · Post by **linda_lakeside** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 5:27 pm

They come here out of desperation, jurica. Hoping you'll do their homework for them. They don't return or leave their opinions, because they don't have a true interest in LC. It's a homework assignment that simply must be done. That's all.

That was my cynical side. Probably what really happens is, they have a tremendous love for LC, they come to this site, and lose their way on the way back from the donut shop (where they were buying donuts for everyone here). In which case, they'll soon be back.

There. We have a choice.

Linda.

Jen · Post by **Jen** » Wed Apr 13, 2005 9:48 pm

i find it unfortunate that students take advantage of a message board like this, i am a student myself, but have had an intrest in Leonard Cohen most of my life because my father is a huge fan. I have even used some of his music to perform to as i am a choreographer in dance. I just hope that you dont think all students come on here just to get you to do their homework, because i know with myself that is not the case, so if you see any postings about analyzing with my name, it is not for homework, it is for pleasure, and i apologize if my analysis is not as detailed as some of yours but that is why i am here, to learn

Thanks,
Jen

lizzytysh · Post by **lizzytysh** » Wed Apr 13, 2005 9:55 pm

Dear Jen ~

You truly don't need to worry about being mistaken in this regard. The students that are being referred to in these postings are distinct, in their wording and their pleas. The words "analyze/analysis" are not the key identifiers. Generally, they arrive at the last minute, and their wording ~ directly or indirectly ~ reveals that. Generally, they say that it is for a project or an assignment; that they basically don't know much about Leonard; and they dump their project questions in the virtual laps of the posters here. They really are quite identifiable in one way or another, and quite apart from people such as yourself. There are many students here. Those who are here for more than a high school/college/university project already have an appreciation and at least some sort of understanding of Leonard's work. The longer you're here, the more clear the drop-ins will become. They generally do not get what they've come looking for, but are referred to places where they can glean some information. Too many of those here are too busy and/or disinclined to do other people's [to-be-graded] work for them. Perhaps, the first thing these drop-ins need to learn about Leonard is that he cannot be a last-minute project.

What songs have you choreographed? Are you able to describe at all the manner of dance?

Linda ~ I hope he got some plain, glazed ones

.

~ Lizzy

Jen · Post by **Jen** » Wed Apr 13, 2005 10:36 pm

well i do modern dance, and i used "adam and eve" a couple years ago with my highschool graduation dance class, and i used partnering as the song is sang not only by Cohen, but by Jennifer Warnes so the opposition in the voices as reflected by the movement on stage

it turned out quite well, and it was great being able to have such strong poetry to create my movement from

and thank you for your response, because i was worried people would not respond to my posts! hahaha

- Jen