Singing as an Enhancer of Poetic Language in Three Songs by Leonard Cohen

Abstract

The end of the present essay is to demonstrate the value of singing in the poetical labor of the canadian first poet and then singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen. The transition (or, one could argue, potentialization) between text and orality in the becoming of his career is the centre of this investigation. Said analysis will be done based on three of his songs —Is This What You Wanted (1974), Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye (1967) and One Of Us Cannot Be Wrong (1967)— and the support of Zumthor’s (1991) and Frenk’s (1991) theories on the matter. In this way, we will be giving proof of the inevitable evolution of Cohen’s poetic creations.