Running on Reminiscences

"Blood Bank" was released on an EP of the same name by Bon Iver in 2009 following their first album. Justin Vernon, a native Wisconsin, folk singer-songwriter and founder of the band composed the EP. Although Vernon has been a part of many bands, Bon Iver is by far his most successful, the name of the band derives from the french greeting "Bon hiver" meaning good winter and the music they produce is commonly classified as indie folk or folktronica.

"Blood Bank" is the most conventional song on the EP, and one of my all-time favorites due to how the music sounds, however up until this assignment I had never really listened to the lyrics. The song is starts with a couple, narrated by the man, who meets for the first time at a blood bank while presumably donating blood. The couple starts talking and flirting when the woman makes a joke:

See look that's yours!Stacked on top with your brother'sSee how the resemble one anotherEven in their plastic little covers

Obviously all blood looks the same to the naked eye, so the primary purpose this line serves is to show the comfortable atmosphere between the two. However she also says the blood around his is his "brother's" possibly implying that we are all brothers. This is even more evident when it is revealed that we all have similar blood, bringing to mind the familiar maxim that 'we all bleed red'.

That secret that you knewBut don't know how to tellIt fucks with your honorAnd it teases your headBut you know that it's good girlBecause it's running you with red

In the next verse it is revealed that the woman is married as the relationship "fucks with your honor" and is secret. In the last line in the verse the narrator claims that despite her marriage the girl is relying on this relationship as the use of "red" relates back to blood demonstrating how the relationship is pumping blood in the woman's veins, keeping her going every day. Additionally in-between verses the narrator repeatedly states "I know it well." This and the woman not "knowing how to tell" creates a dichotomy between the narrator who knows what he wants and the woman who is conflicted between her marriage and more intimate relationship.

However it is in the following verse that the woman makes up her mind, the song goes "As a moon waned to crescent / We started to kiss." The moon waning symbolizes the end of the relationship and in the following verse the fate is sealed as the narrator says his final goodbye, "I'm in love with your honor / I'm in love with your cheeks" acknowledging how despite being rebuffed he respects her decision (her honor) and still finds her beautiful (her cheeks).

This song is poetry because it is constantly expanding the blood metaphor as a symbol of their relationship and it's prominence in their lives. Additionally the song follows the form of a sonnet as there is an issue throughout the majority of the poem, in this case their forbidden love, but ends with a resolution, in this case the woman claiming it could never be and the man imagining how things could have been.