Leonard Cohen – Avalanche Meaning

In this article, we’ll explore the meaning of Avalanche by Leonard Cohen. As of this writing, Avalanche is ranked 168.

“Avalanche” by Leonard Cohen is about the struggle between vulnerability and power, where pain, longing, and self-identity collide beneath the weight of expectation and human connection.

The song feels heavy and slow, like walking through deep snow. It talks about sadness and how people sometimes hide their true feelings from each other.

When Cohen sings, “Well, I stepped into an avalanche, it covered up my soul,” we sense someone buried by emotions or troubles that are hard to escape. As we listen to lines like “You who wish to conquer pain, you must learn, learn to serve me well,” it sounds as if he’s telling us that understanding pain takes patience—maybe even humility. The words twist and turn: we think about love, loneliness, the strange ways people try to help each other but sometimes just end up lost together in the cold.

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Cohen lets us peek behind the mask people wear when they hurt or want something deeply. That moment—when he admits to longing without need—shows us how tangled love and suffering can get inside a person’s heart.