Coming from a poet, to this I sigh and say "Sure - to the people who don't read poetry." This isn't meant as disparagement against you but against the general public who hold up Cohen as the pinnacle of poetry or such without a real awareness of everything poetry is these days. You can throw Dylan up there under the same exact moniker if you want, people will eat it up and agree as well. Hell thenewgreen you can add Jewel to this list whose 1998 book of poetry sold over a million copies probably more than any poet laureate has done. If we're gonna start talking about the average person's perception of poetry vs. quality poetry.he'll at least be remembered as one of the greatest poets of our time
That's a mighty large assumption of me based on a little comment in a little website. I can appreciate Cohen's poetry as well as any other poet, and I can consider him a great even if he doesn't hold a candle to ee cummings or Frost. Don't use my appreciation of Cohen as a means to condescend, you're assuming the entire breadth of my knowledge and appreciation of poetry based on a throwaway comment.
When you take my statements as they are intended and in fact explicitly stated, you can tell me what to do: And also: That's not meant as condescension? I explicitly state that my comment has nothing to do with you, but with "the general public." You took it personally. That's not my problem.This isn't meant as disparagement against you but against the general public
Don't use my appreciation of Cohen as a means to condescend
based off a little comment on a little website
You can add Jewel to the list for sure, but her quality of poetry in no way diminishes or adds to the validity of Leonard Cohen's work. I think there is a tendency to discount the poet that happens to be a musician or the musician that happens to be a poet, which is silly because the two often coexist so beautifully. One of my favorite poets is David Berman, he's a great song writer too, you may be familiar with his band "the Silver Jews." I haven't read Jewel's poetry, but my guess is that it's pretty bad. I have read some of Leonard Cohen's poetry and as you would expect, given his songwriting, it's good. My guess (and this is just a guess) is that many of the poets of "our time" that you would put on the list of those worthy of being called "great" would also consider Cohen's contribution to the field of poetry/lyricism "great." So while your annoyance that Jewel is a widely known "poet" may be justified, I think you should be grateful that Cohen is helping to keep the appreciation for poetry alive. Also, I would wager that fans of Cohen are likely aware of other modern poets whereas fans of Jewel... well, probably not.
Sure, I'll give you that. I actually don't know how many poets would include Cohen, if asked, but I think that may be as much a result of "mental typing" - i.e., Cohen writes songs therefore isn't a poet - as in terms of regard - for instance if you asked me to name my favorite rappers I wouldn't include a spoken word poet in there even though theoretically I believe the two genres are very close and you can be very good at both in part because they relate so much. I believe a divide is seen even though in practice that divide may be small or not exist. However, because of the way we label things, they become compartmentalized. As for being grateful to Cohen for keeping the appreciation of poetry alive, I'll give you a skeptical sure that can't make an argument against the assertion and so therefore is agreeing.I think there is a tendency to discount the poet that happens to be a musician or the musician that happens to be a poet, which is silly because the two often coexist so beautifully.
This is an accurate fact but my point about "mental typing" still stands - in fact, I think your point only serves to corroborate mine. If you took a street poll about "Who Leonard Cohen was?" I think you would get 9/10 people saying he was a musician or a songwriter over a poet, even despite this fact that he made an attempt in poetry before becoming famous for song.
HA. I think you are probably right on all counts.