1 Loren: I don't get it, Ophelia. Why would Shakespeare put love poetry in the revision of the US Constitution?
2 Ophelia: Isn't it obvious? He's holding a torch for you.
3 Loren: What? Like Lady Liberty?
4 Ophelia: You don't get out of the government offices much, do you?

Several cultures have had goddesses named Liberty or the equivalent. Lady Liberty is most commonly used to refer to the statue Liberty Enlightening the World, better known as the Statue of Liberty, which is a representation of this goddess.

In other words, the Statue of Liberty is a pagan symbol (or heathen, depending on your etymological pedanticness).

---

2015-11-28 Rerun commentary: A thing I did not know before writing this:

The idiom of "carrying a torch for" someone, meaning to be infatuated with someone, may have its origins in the Ancient Greek and Roman tradition of the wedding torch. This was a torch which the bride would light in the hearth of her old home, and then carry lit and use it to light the hearth of the new matrimonial home.

The Greek god Hymen, who was the god of marriage ceremonies, was often depicted carrying a torch for this reason.