The Bus - Leonard Cohen 9 1936)



The Bus
Leonard Cohen (Canada, b. 1936)

I was the last passenger of the day,
I was alone on the bus,
I was glad they were spending all that money
just getting me up Eighth Avenue.
Driver! I shouted, it’s you and me tonight,
let’s run away from this big city
to a smaller city more suitable to the heart,
let’s drive past the swimming pools of Miami Beach,
you in the driver’s seat, me several seats back,
but in the racial cities we’ll change places
so as to show how well you’ve done up North,
and let us find ourselves some tiny American fishing village
in unknown Florida
and park right at the edge of the sand,
a huge bus pointing out,
metallic, painted, solitary,
with New York plates.
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Submitted on March 03, 2021

Modified on May 03, 2023

39 sec read
671

Quick analysis:

Scheme AB XABXXBXXXXXXXXXBX
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 684
Words 130
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 2, 17

Leonard Cohen

 · 1934 · Westmount

Leonard Norman Cohen was a highly gifted and varied writer — novelist, playright, songwriter and poet. He was already quite famous as a poet before embarking on a music career as a singer-songwriter. He is generally considered to be one of the greatest songwriters of all time, and his songs have been recorded by countless other performers. Born in Montreal, Canada, in 1934, Cohen had a long and productive career. He was working right up to his death, in 2016 at the age of 82. more…

All Leonard Cohen poems | Leonard Cohen Books

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