Comments on: Did Cohen Plagiarize or Allude to Longfellow?

By: hermes kelly handbag

hermes kelly handbag — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 08:49:22 +0000

It was extremely well-liked

By: Thonnathofags

Thonnathofags — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 06:24:46 +0000

There are 5 houses in five different colors
In each house lives a different nationality.
These 5 owners drink a certain beverage, smoke a certain brand of cigar and keep a certain pet.
No owners have the same pet, smoke the same brand of cigar, or drink the same beverage.

The CLUES:

The Brit lives in the Red house.
The Swede keeps dogs as pets.
The Dane Drinks tea.
The Green House is on the left of the White House.
The Green House’s owner drinks coffee.
The person who smokes Pall Mall rears birds.
The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhill.
The man in the center house drinks milk.
The Norwegian lives in the first house.
The man who smokes Blends lives next to the one who keeps cats
The man who keeps horses lives next to the man who smokes Dunhill.
The man who smokes Blue Master drinks beer.
The German smokes Prince.
The Norwegian lives next to the Blue House.
The man who smokes Blends has a neighbor who drinks water.
The QUESTION:

Who owns the fish?

By: Billy Joe Mills

Billy Joe Mills — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:41:55 +0000

Marie,

The resources you linked us to, so far as I can tell, have absolutely nothing to do with this conversation and do not advance your position in any way. Please let me know if I am mistaken about that.

Also, the things you said, that Cohen is generally well regarded and accomplished, do not relate in any way to your argument that Cohen did not plagiarize Longfellow. The logic of your argument was something like: “Cohen receives a lot of praise and sells a lot of books, therefore, he did not plagiarize Longfellow and I conclude this even though I’ve said nothing about the specifics of the two poems in question.”

By: Billy Joe Mills

Billy Joe Mills — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:37:53 +0000

My concluding thought is that Cohen was probably not plagiarizing Longfellow. But given that I am a Cohen fan, I was severely disappointed when I learned that “Tower of Song” was not a Cohen original. I understand that songwriters do this sort of thing from time to time, but I think it’s unfortunate when more explicit credit is not given either in the lyrics of the song or in some kind of annotations to the song.

By: Joshua

Joshua — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 22:14:37 +0000

Marie, thank you for providing us with a treasury of resources. What drew you to Cohen to begin with?

Todd, thanks so much for catching this comment!!

By: Todd

Todd — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 21:02:41 +0000

Hi,

I just wanted to bump this thread because I just noticed that the comment by “Marie” from 9 days ago was awaiting moderation because it contained too many links. I just wanted to make sure everyone saw it.

By: tom

tom — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 11:37:32 +0000

Cohen knows Longfellow and you can find the traces of his poetry in other poems and songs. Also Dante all over Ten New Songs (see Judith Fitzgerald’s long essay on The Leonard Cohen Files), and Cavafy, and Frost and Stevenson in A Thousand Kisses Deep, and Mathew Arnold in Undertow, and Garcia Lorca of course, and Keats, and Shelley, and Lord Byron, and Irving Layton, and FR Scott, etc. etc. He works with literary heritage.

By: Marie

Marie — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 22:21:05 +0000

This blog showed up on my newsreader this morning which is set to all things Leonard Cohen. When I picked my jaw up off the floor, I was happy to note the DrHGuy (well known in the Cohen community) made some headway in debunking these outrageous claims about Cohen. As Cohen fans, we are accustom to folks not knowing who Leonard is or dismissing him as depressing. But plagiarist?? The man who was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame? The man who received Canada’s highest honor of Companion in the Order of Canada? The man whose latest book of poetry, Book of Longing, was the first poetry book to reach number one on the best seller list in Canada? That man a plagiarist? Say it ain’t so. Well, it ain’t. Leonard Cohen’s work is studied at the highest level of academia and Cohen scholars have noted, discussed, analyzed and marveled at Cohen’s skills. Of course, these passages from Longfellow have been noticed, noted and discussed. I would direct you to the newsgroup -
http://groups.google.ca/group/alt.music.leonard-cohen/browse_thread/thread/12c050b37cad2d1e/8612d963d9ac23e9?hl=en&q=longfellow&lnk=ol&#
and in particular the discussion of Longfellow, Donne and Shakespeare -
http://groups.google.ca/group/alt.music.leonard-cohen/browse_thread/thread/12c050b37cad2d1e/484dc31d5e0361aa?hl=en&lnk=gst&q=longfellow#484dc31d5e0361aa

Finally, no discussion of this issue would be complete without mentioning one scholar in particular, Judith Fitzgerald, who has studied and written (and still writes) about the nuts and bolts and breathtaking beauty of Leonard’s work. She is an award-winning poet herself and a wildly gifted writer. Check out Notes Towards a Definition of a Masterpiece (http://www.judithfitzgerald.ca/masterpiece.html). And if I have managed to peak your interest about Leonard Cohen, visit The Leonard Cohen Files (http://www.leonardcohenfiles.com/) for everything you need to know about the man who just returned from a European concert tour where he earned acclaim for his “gift of a golden voice.”

By: Did Nemoy Plagiarize or Allude to Tolkien? : Urbanagora

Did Nemoy Plagiarize or Allude to Tolkien? : Urbanagora — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 03:34:17 +0000

[...] not saying Leonard Nemoy is plagiarizing J.R.R. Tolkien, but following the logic of this post, it’s an open [...]

By: Billy Joe Mills

Billy Joe Mills — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 23:26:02 +0000

I also agree that “charges of literary theft require support by far more substantial evidence…” Luckily, I’m not charging Cohen with anything. I am simply asking the question, “Did Cohen plagiarize or did he allude to Longfellow.”

There are two other options.

3) Cohen was not aware of Longfellow’s poem and this is a grand coincidence.

4) Cohen had read Longfellow’s poem some amount of time before he wrote Tower of Song and had forgotten about Longfellow’s poem. The poem then subconsciously stayed with Cohen and weeks, months or years later he wrote Tower of Song without consciously realizing that Longfellow inspired him.