I am Your Man Leonard Cohen

10.         Leonard Cohen                                                                                              I am Your Man

Essay: 1. “I am Your Man” as the supreme expression of desperate love.

            2.Imagine you are the poet’s beloved. How would you respond to his pleas?

Leonard Cohen is a Canadian singer, song writer and poet. On finding poetry not financially rewarding, Cohen made up his mind to try songwriting and moved to the US 1966. His songs abound in themes of political and social justice.  He spent five years as a recluse at Mount Baldy Zen and became a Zen Buddhist monk.

“I am Your Man” is a romantic song that describes the passionate and desperate love of the man for his beloved lady love.  The song is written in free verse. The lover in the poem promises her that he is willing to take on any role for the sake of his beloved lady love.  The lover has made many promises to his beloved in the past, but could not keep up those promises. But goes on making promises over and again.  If she wants another kind of love, he will wear a mask for her. If she wants a partner, she should take his hand. If she is angry with him and she wants to beat him, he is ready accept all her punishments. The narrator tells her that he is still her man. If she wants him to be boxer, he is ready to take up that role and step into the ring  for  her.  If she wants a doctor, he will examine every  part of her body. If she wants a driver, he is ready to become a driver for her and she should get inside the car.

The narrator wants to have sex with her. He feels like a dog in heat. He says that the moon is very bright. A man never got a woman back to him by begging on his knees. But he would crawl to her and he will fall at her feet and he will praise her beauty. He would claw at her heart and he would tear at her sheet and he would request her to accept him as her lover. If she wants to sleep on the road, he will drive the car for her.

If I were his lady love, I would reject him, kick him out of my sight because I know that he wants me only to have sex with him. When his sexual desire is satisfied, he would kick me out just as a curry leaf. I am certain that he has no love for me. Pure love is spiritual and divine which  that dog does not have. He does not know how to respect a woman. I need a man  who is a real  lover whose heart is over-brimmed with spiritual love. The narrator confesses that he has given his lady love a lot of promises, but could not fulfill those promises because he has no love for her. He is like the cruel duke of Robert Browning’s poem “My Last Duchess”.                  kjt/20-03-2020