The song hallelujah by leonard Cohen has a verse that refers to the marble arch. what does that mean?

Answer 1

I saw your flag on the marble arch, love is not a victory march, it's a cold and broken hallelujah.

Love is not a battle; you don't have a "right" to love, nor do you win it by force. Love comes when you're broken, sad, defeated, humble, gentle, or vulnerable.

Victors' flags were planted on conquered castles.

The line is a rebuke to the unnamed lover.

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Answer 2

The entire song is a metaphor for many things but most of it is based off of some classic love stories from the Bible. David and Bathsheba, Samson and Delilah and then he uses those stories to compare them to the fact that love hasn't changed over all these centuries. It's still strong, powerful, and at times very painful.

This website below gives a pretty good break down of the basics of the stories. The marble arch could refer to two things, the temple that Samson brought down or the war between Uriah and David over Bathsheba. The beauty of Leonard Cohen's lyrics is that he leaves it very open to interpretation. It can mean something to one person and something completely different to another.

Hope that helps

Source(s):

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7787355.stm

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