Song For Our Daughter

Laura Marling

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"Asked by Alexandra Pollard of The Independent about the lines:

"Lately I've been thinking about our daughter growing old
All of the bullshit that she might be told
There's blood on the floor
Maybe now you'll believe her for sure"

Marling explained that the bloody reference was inspired by Lucretia, a Roman noblewoman whose story has been retold by everyone from Shakespeare to Benjamin Britten. "She was raped the night before her wedding," said Marling, "and no one believed her. In that time, they believed if you'd been 'sullied' in any way, if your virginity had been taken before you were married, that your blood would be black. So she walked into court on the morning of her marriage and she stabbed herself in the chest, and her blood was indeed black. And she died."

LYRICS

Though they may want you to tread in their trail
Only to see if the path they set fails
Though they may want you to take off your clothes
Whatever they think that the action exposed
With your clothes on the floor
Taking advice from some old balding bore
You'll ask yourself, "Did I want this at all?"

Do you remember what I said?
The book I left by your bed
The words that some survivor read

Lately I've been thinking about our daughter growing old
All of the bullshit that she might be told
There's blood on the floor
Maybe now you'll believe her for sure
She remembers what I said
The book I left by her bed
The words that some survivor read

Though they may take you for all you had left
You won't be forgotten for what you had not done yet
So you wished for a kiss from God
And you mourned in your childish loss
Innocence gone but it's not forgot
You'll get your way through it somehow

You remember what I said
The book you left by your bed
The words that will outlive the dead