White Blank Page

I agree, this seems to be about a girl who doesn't honour her commitment to a relationship. A lot of the strength comes from its probably borrowing from the genre and imagery of many Old Testament prophets... Where unfaithfulness is spoken of in the language of adultery, and God's undying love is angry at the way the 'bride' blindly tramples all over not only him, but all the splendour she could have with him instead of her brokenness and craving. I guess something that were truly, perfectly good, couldn't be constantly compromised, or treated like it were worthless- it just can't be an equal, real relationship in that case, even with perfect compassion and forgiveness. In the prophecies, this grieves him. The imagery so often slips into the fact that nonetheless, his faithful love remains unchanged, and will do anything to bring her back.

Given the amount of biblical reference on this album, it feels safe to guess something like this as a possible allusion. Maybe it's there to add the potent depth of cruel rejection and endless faithfulness, in a song that's actually about a human relationship.

What freaks me out the most about your post is that in those 4 short paragraphs you've summed up whats going on in my life currently...have a +1 :)

But yes i definitely agree with you on that one

I think the line 'a white blank page and a swelling rage' means that in the end the relationship was one sided, he only loved her and now the 'white blank page' means he has absolutely nothing to show of this relationship now he has a 'swelling rage', he is sad, furious and frustrated he wasn't loved back

I'm going with silverraincoat on this one. You can hear it loud and clear in the lyrics, and it's beautiful. One of the most beautiful songs I've heard.
Mumford & Sons are absolutley amazing.

Have to agree with silverraincoat on this too.

I automatically thought of a man who fell in love with another man. To me it sounds more like they were involved with each other. I think his lover is struggling with his sexuality and has decided to try to be "normal" and so he's left him for a woman.

That's why it sounds like accusations being thrown and where the rage is coming from in my opinion. When he sings "confess your love" it sounds sarcastic to me. (Although I admit I could be hearing what I want to so it agrees with the story in my head!)

Emerahl, I think they were deeply involved with each other too, as shown in the line "Can you kneel before the king and say, "I'm clean, I'm clean." It's like the narrator dares his best friend to claim he (the bf) was 100% straight in front of god when he...wasn't.

Addictive song--this one. It is.

I agree - definitely a guy who wants a guy who is with a girl.

In fact, I suspect it was written about the main characters in "Arthur of the Britons."

There is an Arthurian book near the start of the bookshop vid. and the song is perfect for Arthur and Kai.

Hadn't considered this, but it certainly would make a lot of sense! Then again, maybe I think that because I've been in pretty much that exact position before, haha, so I can relate on that level...

I think you got it. This is a man railing (with a "swelling rage") against a God who gives him sexual feelings, then bars him from acting on them (with the threat he will no longer be "clean" enough to bow before the "king" aka God, if he acts on them).

The man feels God is punishing him for his faith: "where was my fault
In loving you with all my heart?" If the man had never been religious, he would never have felt the unpleasant guilt, and could just have enjoyed his sexuality.

He feels his love for the girl is beautiful and natural, and asks God to tell him the truth about the contradiction: "Lead me to the truth and I will follow you with my whole life."

Implicit in this is that if God doesn't clarify his confusion soon, this man is going to turn atheist.

I agree, this song especially, to me has a religious undertone! In my opinion this is a man struggling with his beliefs "tell me now where was my fault in loving you with my whole heart" I believe this is a man who has been through some shit in his life and is questioning it all god/religion and why we all still seem to suffer after giving our hearts to the big man! "a white blank page and a swelling rage...RAGE". The whole album is filled with biblical reference "Lead me to the truth and i will follow you with all my heart". looking at their religeous background the schools they went it makes sense to me!!! well that's my take on this amazing tune.

I agree with this one the most. At first though, I only saw it for my situation.
"Can you lie next to her? And give her your heart, your heart, as well as your body?"
It's something I want guys to asks themselves before they try to have sex with me. Or not even sex, just the fact that most guys want to hook up but they don't want to show any emotion. (You desired my attention but denied my affections) But then once you put everything together, it's clear that a man's in a battle between his mind and body, or desires vs. religion. Either way, love this song

I think you are right about there being a religious message, but wrong about most of the rest. Don't you all see this is a song sung by a man about another man? And being "clean" in front of God (the king) means not being homosexual. So a homosexual man is in love with a man who is with a woman, but probably flirted or led the gay man on. I love this song, but am amused when people don't see it's about homosexual love.

I agree with Stephen on this mostly. I think the line about "her white blank page" is directly related to some feeling I've had before. I always take note of clean, pure girls, (not because its some twisted take away their purity thing, but I have more respect for them and there's one right now that I think I like)

So I think that lyric is saying how she was perfect for him with her purity and cleanliness.

I agree. However, i think this song is addressed to the girl. They were together and she "desired" his attention but "denied" his affection. Because of her religious beliefs, the girl in this song denied the singer's offer of love, sex. This song is about the mans internal struggle with this notion. He thinks that his expression of love is a good thing. The blank white page is the girls virginity, and when the singer mentions rage, he is showing how the girl's virginity is responding to him. I feel like the relationship ended because of this.

Nah.

Just because someone uses religious imagery, it doesn't mean they are speaking about god.

The song talks about the Ego, about standing in front of the innermost core of yourself and judging yourself...

@Stephen_Bradley I agree with Stephen, and with some of the rest. I think the first part is an internal dialogue, where the author is struggling with his physical desires as well as the expectation of God, that sex is only meant for marriage! If he was struggling with homosexuality it doesn't change much either, but I think his talking to himself in the first part.

The general idea I got is just a man that knows God's plan, but can't see how it fits with his feelings, urges, thoughts. His feelings makes it feel right and real, yet the King tells him it's wrong. So, his body and his mind are telling him one thing, but the ultimate question is whether he can defend himself before the King.

I might be totally wrong on this, but I think the attention and affections, might be referring to people saying that they want to sleep with someone because of love, but in doing that they are leading them down a path of ruin thus they are exposed as wanting attention more than affection... lust over love.

In all of these struggles I think the author knows that he is missing something and he knows he is wrong - and he is not jsut looking for happy feel-good answers, but he is looking for a Truth that he understands and can follow with his whole life. Before he really understands that I think he feels like he's denying himself for no real reason at all.

God created marriage and sex as a beautiful expression of His G0spel - Eph 5:22-33 - and in that we will be most happy. But that is a difficult thing to grasp.

@Stephen_Bradley Nice idea, and it may have religious undertones but they have specifically said they don't make "christian" music even though the cultural christian elements are there. But a song means to you whatever it means, so if that is your take on it that is valid. That's the beauty of music.

It's definitely this on the album, and also:

"in loving you with my WHOLE HEART" (not "all my heart")

Yeah, I just about to comment about that :)

I am sooo glad someone else noticed that,
i was about to get all over that.
I mean how you could you possibly think it was grave.
If "page" rhymes with "rage",
then its safe to assume that "think" rhymes with "brink" NOT grave...

I was hearing "to the brink, the brink" too.

isn't it "her white blank page" i swear im not doing this to annoy some 1 but im ocd about this stuff lol

@xapril_saddlex this is the best comment so far!

I love this interpretation. Maybe because this situation just happened to me, I don't know, but it seems to fit perfectly. This song hits so so hard and I agree with this 100%.

why does this seem as if it was written for a woman to sing? This song is all obviously written from a man's point of view, stating that no matter how tough men are or appear, even the toughest have or have had emotions this profound.

He's singing about what has ruined a lot of men, as they won't ever recover from that, at the very best they'll do the same way as a sword, that will still do what it's made for, but never be the same, not ever as strong as before and untarnished, once it's been chipped.

That does sound about right.
I think it's a sign of a fantastic song writer when they can make you think of moments in your own life when listening to their music.

"...creepily reflective of the goings on in my own life. "

Dont worry...i heard this song and checked my closet just to see if Marcus Mumford was hiding in there with a pen and notepad.

But yeah as Kane92 said it shows a good song if it relates to you somehow

I completely agree. When I heard this song I wanted to check my closet, too :) I am going through that experience right now, where we both love each other, but one cannot reciprocate the intensity of the love, and it is difficult. It was effing crazy the visceral reaction I had to this song.

And as I was wondering what the blank page was, I received a letter from that someone today. I could envision the person sitting, wondering what to write while feeling this way. Very eerie.

Is it agreeable to say that Marcus Mumford is in all of our closets? Recording our goings on?

I think you are absolutely correct Nobody-special.