| Joan of Arc by Leonard Cohen Now the flames they followed Joan of Arc As she came riding through the dark No moon to keep her armor bright No man to get her through this Very smoky night She said, “I’m tired of the war I want the kind of work I had before With a wedding dress or something white To wear upon my swollen appetite” Well, I’m glad to to hear you talk this way You know I’ve watched you riding every day ‘N something in me yearns to win Such a cold and lonesome heroine “And who are you?” she sternly spoke To the one beneath the smoke “Why, I’m fire, ” he replied “And I love your solitude And I love your pride” “Then fire, make your body cold I’m gonna give you mine to hold” Saying this she climbed inside To be his one, to be his only bride And deep into his fiery heart He took the dust of Joan of Arc And high above the wedding guests He hung the ashes of her wedding dress It was deep into his fiery heart He took the dust of Joan of Arc And then she clearly understood If if he was fire Oh, she then she must be wood I saw the glory in her eye Myself (I long) I long for love and light But must it come so cruel And oh so bright? |     |
“Joan of Arc” is a song by Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen. It was released as a single in March 1971 from his third album, Songs of Love and Hate. The song lasts almost six-and-a-half minutes, and is composed of four stanzas of eight lines each with a “la-la” refrain.
Theme of the song
The song is constructed mainly as a dialogue between Joan of Arc and the fire which is consuming her as she burns at the stake, after having been found guilty of heresy (in 1431). In the song, Joan says that she is “tired of the war” and tells how she would rather be wearing a white wedding dress (one of the charges against her was that she dressed as a man). Joan’s surrender to the fire, as its bride, may also be seen as a symbol of her religious fervor and commitment.
Wikipedia
Interpretation by Reddit User u/SudoNhim
Now the flames they followed Joan of Arc
As she came riding through the dark
No moon to keep her armour bright
No man to get her through this very smoky nightThe verse is dense with Cohen’s symbolism. Fire is creative destruction, a Hegelian dialectic resolving, new truth revealed in the destruction of the old. That Joan is ‘followed’ by the flames suggests that her existence is part of this, she is changing the world in her wake, and perhaps is to be transfigured herself.
She rides through the dark, which in Cohen’s world is a time of ease, but also of illusion. To live in the day is to wrestle with reality on intimate terms, often through great hardship, but to see it illuminated by the struggle. If day yields spiritual illumination at the cost of material struggle, the night does the opposite. We live now in the night, materially at ease but spiritually struggling with blindness and illusion.
Her armor was kept ‘bright’ by ‘the moon’, used consistently throughout Cohen’s work to signify the pull of heaven or utopia, but its no longer shining on her. She is without a man by her side. In the spiritual history related by Cohen this is our society turning away from heaven and from Christ. The abandonment of the masculine element is also identified with democratization. Aspirationally democratic and secular, she submits to no Christ nor monarch.
u/SudoNhim via Reddit
There are probably as many interpretations of this song as there are listeners. How much does the literal, historical story of Joan of Arc figure into the narrative of the song? Or does it describe a contemporary dynamic of a turbulent romantic relationship?
Is there a self-reflective nature, similar to The Last Temptation of Christ, where she never really knows if her choices were correct, if they were made in love or in selfishness, if the sacrifice of abandoning an easier path was worth it? To quote Kris Kristofferson, “Never knowing if believing / is a blessing or a curse.”
Interesting analysis by animi78 on Song Meanings [lightly edited].
At first glance this song comes through as extremely patriarchal in nature. Joan longs for female innocence and the security of a man. Her lacking a man to get her through the night is presented as a problem. The man in turn yearns for to “win” this heroine who is “cold and lonesome”, a story that completely ignores Joan’s vow and choice to abstain passionate love for a greater cause, a cause which is in fact a fire burning within her.
Might it be though, that it is her own passion she yields to? Or God, if you will? She gives herself completely to nothing but her mission. Odd that the follower would crave her though and not simply invite her. She does beg him for mercy, to make his body cold so he can embrace her, but he betrays her and she burns. As she does she realizes this is the true sacrifice. He can only burn through her. It is a martyr’s death indeed. And don’t we all, like the observer here in the final line, sometimes wish to die a martyr’s death, to give ourselves completely for something greater than us, whatever that may be, never being 100% certain what we sacrifice for is good or evil?
animi78 on Song Meanings
The Wedding Dress
In Cohen’s song, he creates an analogy between ultimate sacrifice and a wedding, but there is ambiguity. Joan of Arc expresses guilt for desiring a simple life, a “wedding dress or something white.” Her “swollen appetite” is a sense of guilt because she wants to direct her life away from the divine burden that has been placed on her.
She said, “I’m tired of the war
I want the kind of work I had before
With a wedding dress or something white
To wear upon my swollen appetite”
…..
And deep into his fiery heart
He took the dust of Joan of Arc
And high above the wedding guests
He hung the ashes of her wedding dress
Beautiful rendition of Cohen’s Joan of Arc by Rosa Lavenne