''Flowers for Hitler'' is Canadian poet and composer

Leonard Cohen Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934November 7, 2016) was a Canadian songwriter, singer, poet, and novelist. Themes commonly explored throughout his work include faith and mortality, isolation and depression, betrayal and redemption, soc ...

's third collection of poetry, first published in

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 – In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patria ...

McClelland & Stewart McClelland & Stewart Limited is a Canadian publishing company. It is owned by Random House of Canada, Penguin Random House of Canada, a branch of Penguin Random House, the international book publishing division of German media giant Bertelsmann. ...

. Like other artworks regarding

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

as a subject, it was somewhat controversial in its day.Kubernik, H., ''Leonard Cohen: Everybody Knows'' (

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

Omnibus Press Omnibus Press is a publisher of music-related books. It publishes around 30 new titles a year to add to a backlist of over 300 titles currently in print. History Omnibus Press was launched in 1972 as a general non-fiction publisher to complem ...

, 2014)
p. 34
Cohen's original title, ''Opium and Hitler'', was rejected by the publisher. The inscription on its initial page reads "In an earlier time this would be called Sunshine for

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

, and earlier still it would have been called Walls for

Genghis Khan Genghis Khan (born Temüjin; August 1227), also known as Chinggis Khan, was the founder and first khan (title), khan of the Mongol Empire. After spending most of his life uniting the Mongols, Mongol tribes, he launched Mongol invasions and ...

." It features an opening quote from

Primo Levi Primo Michele Levi (; 31 July 1919 – 11 April 1987) was a Jewish Italian chemist, partisan, Holocaust survivor and writer. He was the author of several books, collections of short stories, essays, poems and one novel. His best-known works i ...

's '' Survival in Auschwitz''.Vesselova, N.
''“The Past is Perfect”: Leonard Cohen’s Philosophy of Time''
(PhD thesis,

University of Ottawa The University of Ottawa (), often referred to as uOttawa or U of O, is a Official bilingualism in Canada, bilingual public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on directly to the northeast of Downtown Ot ...

, 2014). ''Flowers for Hitler'' contains 95 rhymed and free-verse poems, avant-garde texts, and pictorial elements. It was the first of his books to include Cohen's drawings. Only 20 of the poems directly address

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and the

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

. In the poems, Cohen explores the banality of evil, "using the Holocaust as the highest known point of human evil". There are few allusions to the Bible in ''Flowers for Hitler'', unlike Cohen's previous books. Critic Sandra Djwa wrote that ''Flowers for Hitler'' "is a movement from a qualified acceptance of the romantic ideal as it is embodied in art ... to the decadent romanticism of a fin de siecle aesthetic in which the ugly replaces the beautiful as the inspiration for art".

References

External links

Listing of poems
1964 poetry books Poetry by Leonard Cohen McClelland & Stewart books Canadian poetry collections {{poetry-collection-stub