In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
Curling lips, fingertips, dead eye dips
I saw it all in the blackfield
Splinter cracks, summer tracks, paperbacks
We found them all in the blackfield
In the shade, whistle blades, singing fades
In the blackfield
She wants to stay and talk all day
So I remark when it gets dark
All the pale things under the earth
Will reverse
River glass, cycle past, overcast
I saw it all in the blackfield
Copper sky, shadows rise, bridge of sighs
We had all in the blackfield
Skin tracks, face facts, fade to black
In the blackfield
She wants to stay and talk all day
So I remark when it gets dark
All the pale things under the earth
Will reverse
I saw it all in the blackfield
Splinter cracks, summer tracks, paperbacks
We found them all in the blackfield
In the shade, whistle blades, singing fades
In the blackfield
She wants to stay and talk all day
So I remark when it gets dark
All the pale things under the earth
Will reverse
River glass, cycle past, overcast
I saw it all in the blackfield
Copper sky, shadows rise, bridge of sighs
We had all in the blackfield
Skin tracks, face facts, fade to black
In the blackfield
She wants to stay and talk all day
So I remark when it gets dark
All the pale things under the earth
Will reverse
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I have this feeling that the Blackfield is actually life, with the negative connotation of place of suffering it is often given. So the speaker in the song could actually be the dead, as some of you suggested, implying that he assures his lover that they did have their time together while he was alive. Also you should notice that both verses progress in symbols and images of youth, then adulthood, then ultimately a metaphor of death.
As for: "She wants to stay and talk all day So I remark when it gets dark All the pale things under the earth Will reverse" I think it poses a contrast between her still being tied to him to the point that she spends days talking to his grave, while he remarks that the living don't belong with the dead, getting dark being parallel with his death, in which he has to stay in the grave while she ought to move on.