All summer long she touched me
She gathered in my soul
From many a thorn, from many thickets
Her fingers, like a weaver’s
Quick and cool
And the light came from her body
And the night went through her grace
All summer long she touched me
And I knew her, I knew her
Face to face
And her dress was blue and silver
And her words were few and small
She is the vessel of the whole wide world
Mistress, oh mistress, of us all
Dear Lady; Queen of Solitude
I thank you with my heart
for keeping me so close to thee
while so many, oh so many, stood apart
And the light came from her body
And the night went through her grace
All summer long she touched me
I knew her, I knew her
Face to face
This song, included on Recent Songs (1979), is a longer adaption of the poem ‘All Summer Long’ from Death Of A Lady’s Man (a verse anthology whose title’s slight difference from that of his 1977 album may or may not be significant). The Montreal in which Cohen grew up was a profoundly Catholic city and he cannot fail to have noticed Catholicism’s pervasive Mariolatry. In the creation of a new aspect of the multi-faceted Nôtre Dame we can see that, for all the sensuality of the song’s language, the song has as much a spiritual dimension as a carnal one.