The poem
Like a bird on the wire, like a drunk in a midnight choir I have tried in my way to be free. Like a worm on a hook, like a knight from some old fashioned book I have saved all my ribbons for thee. If I, if I have been unkind, I hope that you can just let it go by. If I, if I have been untrue I hope you know it was never to you. Like a baby, stillborn, like a beast with his horn I have torn everyone who reached out for me. But I swear by this song and by all that I have done wrong I will make it all up to thee. I saw a beggar leaning on his wooden crutch, he said to me, "You must not ask for so much." And a pretty woman leaning in her darkened door, she cried to me, "Hey, why not ask for more?" Oh like a bird on the wire, like a drunk in a midnight choir I have tried in my way to be free.
From the poem I gathered that there is in very person that desire to be truly free from being influenced by what others might say; to be free to be or to simply do what we wish to, but we can not be truly free as we are bound to claim "personal accountability" for our actions and decisions.There are times that although we dont mean to, we tend to cause pain and sufferring to the people we claim to love and if we truly take responsibility, we would want to make up for those times. Life, however teaches us that true freedom comes from within each of us, when we become detached and uninfluenced by what others have to say.
one is never "free" until unselfish choices are made which i think is at the core of the poem... cohen sure seems to be hurting and it's no wonder...he doesn't quite give the reader a clue as to how he "tried" to be free...it seems that he speaks of injuring people along his quest for freedom...i think he knows and doesn't need to ask if he's been unkind...how selfish to ask that anyone he's hurt can just "let it go by"...and how does he propose to "make it all up to thee"? to sum it up i'd say that cohen is using his readership to confess his guilt...