Lyric discussion by feufollet 

Cover art for Marian lyrics by Sisters of Mercy, The

Love this song, but had not thought about its meaning other than it being imagistic. That it's primarily about a real woman makes sense.

A second layer of interpretation is more tenuous. Marian is an anagram (version) of Marina, which is a TS Eliot poem. In turn, Marina is an imagining of a scene in the myth of Pericles who finds his lost daughter. In the poem, Eliot contrasts the fate of Pericles with Heracles, who killed his children in a fit.

Worth looking up the Eliot poem, which has a similarly dreamlike atmosphere to the Sisters track.

Song Meaning