The poem
The door it opened slowly, my father he came in, I was nine years old. And he stood so tall above me, his blue eyes they were shining and his voice was very cold. He said, "I've had a vision and you know I'm strong and holy, I must do what I've been told." So he started up the mountain, I was running, he was walking, and his axe was made of gold. Well, the trees they got much smaller, the lake a lady's mirror, we stopped to drink some wine. Then he threw the bottle over. Broke a minute later and he put his hand on mine. Thought I saw an eagle but it might have been a vulture, I never could decide. Then my father built an altar, he looked once behind his shoulder, he knew I would not hide. You who build these altars now to sacrifice these children, you must not do it anymore. A scheme is not a vision and you never have been tempted by a demon or a god. You who stand above them now, your hatchets blunt and bloody, you were not there before, when I lay upon a mountain and my father's hand was trembling with the beauty of the word. And if you call me brother now, forgive me if I inquire, "Just according to whose plan?" When it all comes down to dust I will kill you if I must, I will help you if I can. When it all comes down to dust I will help you if I must, I will kill you if I can. And mercy on our uniform, man of peace or man of war, the peacock spreads his fan.
the poem seems to say that children are offered as sacrifices by the fathers...in the scriptures (judea/christian) abraham offered his son, isaac, as a sacrifice...the feeling i get from the poem is one of cohen's anger toward what he sees as ego driven fathers sacrificing their sons for what they deem to be necessary to feel more manly...he's saying that they liken themselves to the prophets of old...he writes…
Read the whole commentthe poem seems to say that children are offered as sacrifices by the fathers...in the scriptures (judea/christian) abraham offered his son, isaac, as a sacrifice...the feeling i get from the poem is one of cohen's anger toward what he sees as ego driven fathers sacrificing their sons for what they deem to be necessary to feel more manly...he's saying that they liken themselves to the prophets of old...he writes about the peacock, the name given to the male of the species, (the female is called a pea hen), and the spreading of the fan which is the "train plumage" of the male, which is what the peacock does during courtship to win the female...does he feel that men are "peacocks"? and does he include himself in this belief...