Temporary Ground Lyrics

Lyric discussion by LoserNo1 

Cover art for Temporary Ground lyrics by Jack White

On a floating lily island Moving over slowly sideways Rest the temporary creatures Spending all of their days

Waiting for the floor to Buckle down below their belts Crashing into yet another Drifting continental shelf

We're nothing more than temporary creatures inhabiting a constantly shifting and changing planet that could open up and eat us at any moment.

Moving without motion Screaming without sound Across an open ocean Lying there on temporary ground

This makes me think the song was written on an airplane. Just in general we're always moving, even when sitting still, in our natural functions and rhythms and planetary orbit.

Temporary ground in this context makes me think of high and low tides and how ocean levels are changing.

The old explorers had it easy They discovered nothing new But returned on home with answers Of sad existent clues

All the creatures have it hard now Nothing but God is left to know And why he left us all here hanging With an illusion of a home.

The dichotomy of the ease of the old explorers and difficulty of modern folks is playful because it's completely counterintuitive. We can hop on an airplane and go anywhere where they had to endure long ocean or land voyages into uncharted terrain. I know there's a lot more to discover in this world beyond religion, but he makes a good point.