Mumford & Sons: I Gave You All Meaning

I Gave You All Lyrics

Rip the earth in two with your mind
Seal the urge which ensues with brass wires
I never meant you any harm
But your tears feel warm as they fall on my forearm

I close my eyes for a while
And force from the world a patient smile

How can...

1. 1TOP RATED

   #1 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Jun 5th 2012 !⃝

   Since my natural reaction is to project....here is my explanation of this song.
   
   this song is about a divorce. one still loves the other. I will call the person still in love husband, and the one that wants to leave wife (more projecting)
   
   Rip the earth in two with your mind
   
   (Husband: take everything we have and rip it apart)
   
   Seal the urge which ensues with brass wires
   
   (Husband :hide any true feeling from me, and don't let them show)
   
   I never meant you any harm
   
   (Wife: I'm not trying to hurt you.)
   
   But your tears feel warm as they fall on my forearm
   
   (Wife: but I know I have and your pain is real)
   
   I close my eyes for a while
   
   (Husband: I try to pretend this isn't happening.)
   
   And force from the world a patient smile
   
   (Husband: and I try to show everyone that I am fine.)
   
   How can you say that your truth is better than ours?
   
   (Husband: How can whats good for you be more important than whats good for us?)
   
   Shoulder to shoulder, now brother, we carry no arms
   
   (Husband: I'm done fighting, you can have everything)
   
   The blind man sleeps in the doorway, his home
   
   (The Husband is blind because he still holds on to hope that his wife will return, but there is no chance, and yet he sleeps in his doorway because he doesn't want to miss her when she does come home)
   
   If only I had an enemy bigger than my apathy I could have won
   
   (Husband: If I hadn't been so upset, if you had been stronger than my anger, you would still be here.)
   
   But I gave you all
   
   (Husband: I gave you everything I had)
   
   I close my eyes for a while
   And force from the world a patient smile
   
   (Husband: I'm still pretending everything is alright, and I still tell my friends and family I'm fine.)
   
   But I gave you all
   
   (Husband: I gave you everything, why are you still gone.)
   
   And you rip it from my hands
   
   (Husband: and you just take everything, but give nothing.)
   
   And you swear it's all gone
   
   (Wife: there is nothing left between us I don't love you.)
   
   And you rip out all I have
   Just to say that you've won
   
   (Husband: You take everything just to rub it in, because you know you can.)
   
   
   Well now you've won
   
   (Husband: but I don't care anymore. I give up.)
2. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Sep 17th 2018 !⃝

   He wrote this about Laura Marling. She devastated him when she ended their relationship, even though he had cheated on her. However, she was supposedly aloof with him and frustrated him because he seemed to be able to show his feelings more easily than her. Maybe he overwhelmed her with how he felt.
   
   Your tears feel warm as they fall on my forearm, was probably when he told her. When he says how can you say your truth is better than ours, I think he's saying that there was a chance to save the relationship because he still clearly loved her, but she was saying there was no going back.
   
   Marcus has admitted that several of the songs on Sigh no More were due to his broken heart over her.
3. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Aug 23rd 2015 !⃝

   This song is based on Shakespear´s masterpiece King Lear. No divorce or cutting or religion. It is so brilliantly written that we can interpret this in every way possible but however the truth is that this song is abou King Lear, who riped his world (land) in two between his 3 daughters. Read the book and you will understand.
4. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Apr 27th 2014 !⃝

   I think this song is about a broken soldier who's lost all purpose in life for the sake of his country. There are those who threaten to rip the earth apart by destroying the very fragile balance we have. The soldier never meant to do harm, but did so to protect his country, and has now realized his mistake. He fights for his opinion; the enemy hold certain opinions which contradict that of his country, and is the reason for war. Where once he had the support of his brothers, he has been abandoned without protection. For sake of his country, he gave everything. He has lost everything he ever had, and earned nothing in return. The country has one against the enemy, but he's lost as a result.
5. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Feb 8th 2013 !⃝

   Personally, I take this a different way than love for a human being, but rather for God. Although I can not speak for Mumford & Sons, I believe that this song, "I Gave You All", is portraying the loss of faith or the idea of losing faith. "How can you say that your truth is better than ours?" is the best example to this. When people start to think that their faith and their religion is better, it is hard to completely argue back. "Ripping" things from his hands and singing that "you've won" just makes it hard to believe that he stayed with his faith.
6. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Jun 14th 2012 !⃝

   To me it almost feels more about friendship than a lover:
   The lines "Now brother, we carry no arms" sounds like he's singing to a male friend, and I can relate to that part.
   
   People are just so homophobic or pro gay these days they can't see the beauty of a male relationship outside of those boundaries they enforce themselves and both sides are responsible for pushing heterosexual friends into thinking it's not masculine to show emotion to one another.
7. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   May 16th 2012 !⃝

   I think that song is about him being frustrated with his lover because she's taking him for granted and saying he doesn't love her (which he clearly does) - "And you rip it from my hands and you swear it's all gone! And you rip out all I had just to say that you've won (X2)! You've won (X2)! Well now you've won!"
   And when he sings "I gave you all." He's telling his lover that he has given all of his love that he could ever give.
   "How can you say that your truth is better than ours? Shoulder to shoulder, now brother, we carry no arms. An the blind man sleeps in the doorway, his home..." Means that his lover is saying that HER truth is more important than both of theirs. The "carry no arms" part says that there hasn't been a major conflict between them that he can remember. The singer uses the "blind man" as to say that he's blinded by his love for her and he sleeps in the doorway of his heart.
   In all, the singer is frustrated with his lover because she's taking him for granted.
8. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Apr 24th 2011 !⃝

   I think it's about Christianity being beaten by secularism because it has become lazy and apathetic compared to very aggressive atheism- 'if only I'd had an enem bigger than my apathy I could have won', and 'shoulder to shoulder(different denominations), but brother, we carry no arms'( not active in defending their religion). The main line, ' I gave you all', is saying how by being apathetic and gradually giving up ground to fit modern science, they have essentially given up all to secularism. The rest of the chorus: and you rip it from my hands etc... Is saying how some leading atheists have been very aggressive .

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
9. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Feb 22nd 2011 !⃝

   Political??? Was he in the service?

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway

Latest Articles

• 
  A new era for Millennial favorite, Linkin Park
• 
  Anime to watch for the soundtracks… and other reasons you’re undateable
• 
  Dolly, we need you
• 
  The Stranger Things Effect: How new media is drawing Gen Z and Alpha's attention to aging media
• 
  The most underrated soundtrack of the early 2000s
• 
  Buy the Soundtrack, Skip the Movie: Brainscan (1994)