Towers

This is my favorite track on Bon Iver and I've been trying to put it all together for a while. Before one concert, Justin introduced it with: "this song's about the towers we build up." In another he said it was about "a bottle of wine and some virginity. and the dorms." From there I sort of pieced together my interpretation:

"For the love, Iʼd fallen on in the swampy August dawn what a mischief you would bring young darling! when the onus is not all your own when you're up for it before you've grown"

So he falls in love. She brings "a mischief," upon him. I think the mischief is more of a problem he has to solve. Onus means burden, so she seems to take an unnecessary burden on herself, part of which is probably religion. I imagine that she's inexperienced (a virgin as Justin said) and wants to be with him but is very hesitant. She tries to tell herself she's ready, but knows she's not. She's up for it before she's grown, or ready.

"From the faun forever gone in the towers of your honeycomb I'd a tore your hair out just to climb back darling when you're filling out your only form can you tell that itʼs just ceremon' now you've added up to what you're from"

As Justin said, these are the towers we build up. We build up defenses and tend to not let people in easily. He wants to climb her tower and see her vulnerable and for real. He's desperate, he would "tear her hair out to climb back." The "form" he mentions I think is formality. She is being formal and stiff, probably moving slow and not taking anything too fast. He tells her that it's just cermony to be like that. It's just an old convention to go slow and build relationships up. He wants her to just jump in and throw caution to the wind.

"Build your tether rain-out from your fragments break the sailor's table on your sacrum fuck the fiercest fables, I'm with Hagen"

A tether is something that keeps you from going any further. It's a limit. So she has this tether built up keeping her from doing these things, and he wants her to break it. The last line here is one of my favorites. I think the "fiercest fables" are religion. I'm not sure what Hagen has to do with it, but I would guess he doesn't take God's word too seriously. She might have a strong faith, and therefore doesn't want to just give up her virginity to sin or whatever. He tells her to fuck all of that, it doesn't matter.

"For the love, comes the burning young from the liver, sweating through your tongue well, youʼre standing on my sternum don't you climb down darling oh the sermons are the first to rest smoke on Sundays when youʼre drunk and dressed out the hollows where the swallow nests"

This is where the bottle of wine comes into play. The liver reference shows that they're intoxicated. "Don't you climb down darling," is one of my favorite parts. She's finally there. She's let him past her defenses, but he can see her wanting to climb back down. He tells her to stay, reassures her. The sermons are the first to rest: religion is the first thing to be abandoned when you're drunk. She finally casts all doubts aside and lowers her inhibitions with the help of the wine. She lets him climb up her tower.

Swallows can symbolize new beginnings, so I think there's something to that reference as well.

Beautiful song. Justin Vernon is a genius.