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PEOPLE OF all ages gathered, carefully corralled, to walk along a path through the woods. They walked towards the light reflecting off the water in the shadow of a great house. They came to hear a poet sing his songs in a place still associated with another, earlier poet, long dead and revered, writes EILEEN BATTERSBY

Under the shadow of Ben Bulben’s distinctive flat profile, made famous by Yeats, the faithful waited for Leonard Cohen, veteran Canadian singer songwriter, a poet who has pursued personal experience to its limits. His meditations on life and love, the spiritual and the sexual, the hunted and the haunted appeal to all ages for their strange beauty, the gentle melodies; their romance and their solitude. Bittersweet romance, subtle observation and humour run through the songs; there is also the jaunty courage of his odyssey as an artist, a lover, a man and as a performer.