Tweetspeak Poetry

  • Home
  • FREE prompts
  • Earth Song
  • Every Day Poems—Subscribe! ✨
  • Teaching Tools
  • Books, Etc.
  • Patron Love

More than a Broken Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen

By Glynn Young 10 Comments

Red Sky - More than a Broken Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen

Leonard Cohen: songwriter and poet.

Cohen has a song that is perhaps one of the most haunting songs ever recorded, appealing to a multi-generational audience. It’s always a new experience to hear those first few notes with the words, “Now I’ve heard there was a secret chord…”

The song is Hallelujah, first recorded in 1984. Cohen, who occupies his own place in the rock pantheon somewhere in the vicinity of Bob Dylan, is best known for this song, and the best-known version of it is the one recorded by the late Jeff Buckley in 2009, which has had more than 74 million views on YouTube. If that weren’t enough, there’s even an entire book on the song, The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley & the Unlikely Ascent of “Hallelujah, ” published by Alan Light in 2012.

While Buckley’s version may be the best known, singer Rufus Wainright’s version in the soundtrack for the movie Shrek (2001) introduced the song to tens of millions of people. And earlier this summer, Wainright recorded a version of the song with 1, 500 people in an abandoned power station—and it’s one moving video (see below).

Leonard Cohen

Jeff Buckley performing “Hallelujah”

What I didn’t know until recently was that Cohen had written several additional verses for the song. I found them in a small book published by Everyman’s Library entitled Leonard Cohen: Songs and Poems.

The title is somewhat provocative; one doesn’t mix song lyrics and poems, right? Serious poets sniff at the idea. Cohen, however, obviously doesn’t care, because that’s exactly what he’s done in this small volume.

The work is full of surprises. There’s no differentiation between poems and songs; they’re all arranged just like a conventional book of poetry. In fact, I thought that I was reading a conventional book of poetry until I came to Suzanne, and I realized it was not a poem but the lyrics to the song written by Cohen,  made popular in the 1960s by Judy Collins.

And then came a cascade of song lyrics, printed as poetry, and I was struck by how much of Cohen’s lyrics could easily be read as poetry. Both his songs and his poems contain common themes and ideas—love, relationships, sex (sometimes graphic sex), the transience of life, religion, brokenness. His songs include the repetition of choruses but poems often use substantial amounts of repetition as well.

Here is one poem that is clearly recognizable as a poem:

Leonard CohenThis is My Voice

This is my voice
but I am only whispering
The amazing vulgarity
of your style
invites men to think
of torturing you to death
but I am only whispering
The ocean is whispering
The junk-yard is whispering
We no longer wish to learn
what you know how to do
There is no envy left
If you understood this
you would begin to shiver
but I am only whispering
to my tomahawk
so that the image itself
may reduce you to scorn
and weaken you further

Leonard Cohen

Leonard Cohen

Some say the difference between a song and a poem is obvious—songs use music in addition to lyrics and are arranged for performance. But speaking poems aloud shifts them in the direction of performance, too. I’ve also heard some say that the difference between a song and a poem is that a song is aimed at a popular audience and a poem at a literary one. The implied snobbery of that idea aside, I’m not sure it truly makes a significant difference.

Songs and poems both appeal to mind and emotion. I can remember the lyrics of the songs of my teen years as easily as I can recall what poems I memorized. Both tell stories, both can reach to create a common understanding, and both can capture an era. The contents of Cohen’s Selected Poems demonstrates this.

Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” does all of these things. His “cold and broken hallelujah” could easily characterize the times we live in. Whether I call it a song or a poem doesn’t really seem to matter.

Related:

The Difference Between Poetry and Song Lyrics – poet Matthew Zapruder at the Boston Review.

Judy Collins on the song “Suzanne” and Leonard Cohen (video).

Browse more poets and poems

Photo by Micky, Creative Commons, via Flickr. Post by Glynn Young, author of the novels Dancing Priest and A Light Shining, and Poetry at Work.

__________________________

The Joy of Poetry

Megan Willome’s The Joy of Poetry—part memoir, part poetry reflections, part anthology—takes readers on a journey to discovering poetry’s purpose, which is, delightfully, nothing. “Why poetry?” Willome asks. “You might as well ask, why chocolate?” Poetry reflects nothing more and nothing less than the pure joy of living, loving, and being, in all of its confusion and wonder. Willome’s book will gently guide you to read, write, and be a little more human through language’s mystery and joy.

—Tania Runyan, author of How to Read a Poem: Based on the Billy Collins Poem “Introduction to Poetry”

BUY THE JOY OF POETRY NOW

  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Glynn Young
Glynn Young
Editor and Twitter-Party-Cool-Poem-Weaver at Tweetspeak Poetry
Glynn Young lives in St. Louis where he retired as the team leader for Online Strategy & Communications for a Fortune 500 company. Glynn writes poetry, short stories and fiction, and he loves to bike. He is the author of the Civil War romance Brookhaven, as well as Poetry at Work and the Dancing Priest Series. Find Glynn at Faith, Fiction, Friends.
Glynn Young
Latest posts by Glynn Young (see all)
  • Poets and Poems: L.L. Barkat and “Beyond the Glass” - May 22, 2025
  • A History of Children’s Stories: “The Haunted Wood” by Sam Leith - May 20, 2025
  • World War II Had Its Poets, Too - May 15, 2025

Filed Under: Blog, book reviews, Books, love poems, Music, Music Poems, Poems, poetry, poetry reviews, Poets

Try Every Day Poems...

Comments

  1. Donna Falcone says

    August 23, 2016 at 9:59 am

    Glynn! This is one of my favorite songs and the verses are just undending it seems… one is as important as the next and to sing them all would be herculean, so I always find it fascinating to see which verses an artist will choose to sing and exclude. KD Lang has an amazing version as well. This version gives me chills – the whole room full of people – singing. Oh. Okay I need a tissue. This is moving me to tears. I’m having that kind of a week.

    I will definitely look for that collection of poems and songs. This, too, is a wonderful question and topic. But I’ll stop now before I get carried away. 😉

    Reply
    • Glynn says

      August 23, 2016 at 12:05 pm

      Donna, the song seems to resonate across generations. It’s been around for more than 30 years, and it still resonates. Thanks for the comment.

      Reply
  2. Maureen says

    August 23, 2016 at 10:52 am

    k.d. lang’s version of ‘Hallelujah’ is my favorite.

    A good book about Cohen is Sylvie Simmons’s ‘I’m Your Man’. To say Cohen’s had an amazing life is an understatement.

    Some may not know that he spent time at a Zen monastery and that one of the reasons he continues to hit the street is that his manager stole the money in Cohen’s retirement account, leaving him with little to nothing.

    Early on Cohen had some success with his poetry. He’s written a lot of it.

    Reply
    • Glynn says

      August 23, 2016 at 12:07 pm

      What I find fascinating about “Broken Hallelujah” is how Cohen mixes the sacred and the profane to paint a picture. Thanks for the comment, Maureen!

      Reply
  3. Megan Willome says

    August 23, 2016 at 11:57 am

    Roseanne Cash says if what she’s written needs the backbeat, then it’s a song. A poem can stand on its own. I’d say “Hallelujah” is definitely a poem, married with a great melody.

    Reply
    • Glynn says

      August 23, 2016 at 12:07 pm

      Megan – I agree!

      Reply
  4. Paul Hughes says

    August 23, 2016 at 8:39 pm

    I first heard the song at the end of the movie “Saint Ralph.” Played the credits over and over and over. Then got several other versions on iTunes, including Buckley’s of course, and a Cohen version.
    I’d heard of other verses — some of them pretty explicit.
    Need to get these books …

    Reply
    • Glynn says

      August 24, 2016 at 9:08 am

      There are other versions, too, including a “Christian” version. Thanks for reading and commenting, Paul!

      Reply
  5. Sandra Heska King says

    August 24, 2016 at 12:43 pm

    I was in tears with this… the music carries me away. Then I looked up the lyrics. Apparently I’ve never really heard all the lyrics. Put the lyrics (or the poem) together with the music, and you really have a story.

    Reply
    • Glynn says

      August 25, 2016 at 8:26 am

      You do. And both poems and songs can tell stories.

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Take How to Read a Poem

Get the Introduction, the Billy Collins poem, and Chapter 1

get the sample now

Welcome to Tweetspeak

New to Tweetspeak Poetry? Start here, in The Mischief Café. You're a regular? Check out our May Menu

Patron Love

❤️

Welcome a little patron love, when you help keep the world poetic.

The Graphic Novel

"Stunning, heartbreaking, and relevant illustrations"

Callie Feyen, teacher

read a summary of The Yellow Wallpaper

meet The Yellow Wallpaper characters

How to Write Poetry

Your Comments

  • Donna Hilbert on Poets and Poems: L.L. Barkat and “Beyond the Glass”
  • L.L. Barkat on Poets and Poems: L.L. Barkat and “Beyond the Glass”
  • Poets and Poems: L.L. Barkat and “Beyond the Glass” - Tweetspeak Poetry on Love, Etc.: Poems of Love, Laughter, Longing & Loss
  • Glynn on World War II Had Its Poets, Too

Featured In

We're happy to have been featured in...

The Huffington Post

The Paris Review

The New York Observer

Tumblr Book News

Stay in Touch With Us

Categories

Learn to Write Form Poems

How to Write an Acrostic

How to Write a Ballad

How to Write a Catalog Poem

How to Write a Ghazal

How to Write a Haiku

How to Write an Ode

How to Write a Pantoum

How to Write a Rondeau

How to Write a Sestina

How to Write a Sonnet

How to Write a Villanelle

5 FREE POETRY PROMPTS

Get 5 FREE inbox poetry prompts from the popular book How to Write a Poem

Shakespeare Resources

Poetry Classroom: Sonnet 18

Common Core Picture Poems: Sonnet 73

Sonnet 104 Annotated

Sonnet 116 Annotated

Character Analysis: Romeo and Juliet

Character Analysis: Was Hamlet Sane or Insane?

Why Does Hamlet Wait to Kill the King?

10 Fun Shakespeare Resources

About Shakespeare: Poet and Playwright

Top 10 Shakespeare Sonnets

See all 154 Shakespeare sonnets in our Shakespeare Library!

Explore Work From Black Poets

About Us

  • • A Blessing for Writers
  • • Our Story
  • • Meet Our Team
  • • Literary Citizenship
  • • Poet Laura
  • • Poetry for Life: The 5 Vital Approaches
  • • T. S. Poetry Press – All Books
  • • Contact Us

Write With Us

  • • 5 FREE Poetry Prompts-Inbox Delivery
  • • 30 Days to Richer Writing Workshop
  • • Poetry Prompts
  • • Submissions
  • • The Write to Poetry

Read With Us

  • • All Our Books
  • • Book Club
  • • Every Day Poems—Subscribe! ✨
  • • Literacy Extras
  • • Poems to Listen By: Audio Series
  • • Poet-a-Day
  • • Poets and Poems
  • • 50 States Projects
  • • Charlotte Perkins Gilman Poems Library
  • • Edgar Allan Poe Poems Arts & Experience Library
  • • William Blake Poems Arts & Experience Library
  • • William Shakespeare Sonnet Library

Celebrate With Us

  • • Poem on Your Pillow Day
  • • Poetic Earth Month
  • • Poet in a Cupcake Day
  • • Poetry at Work Day
  • • Random Acts of Poetry Day
  • • Take Your Poet to School Week
  • • Take Your Poet to Work Day

Gift Ideas

  • • Every Day Poems
  • • Our Shop
  • • Everybody Loves a Book!

Connect

  • • Donate
  • • Blog Buttons
  • • By Heart
  • • Shop for Tweetspeak Fun Stuff

Copyright © 2025 Tweetspeak Poetry · FAQ, Disclosure & Privacy Policy