Mumford and Sons’ Definition of Love in Delta
Delta is yet another very strong collection of work from Mumford and Sons. While many people have been frustrated by their departure from the folk genre, their music is just as meaningful as it ever has been. What I found most powerful from this most recent album was their reflections on the true nature of love. Through songs like Delta, Slip Away, Rose of Sharon, and Wild Heart, Mumford and Sons give our culture a much needed definition of love.
Pop culture has disfigured the culture’s conception of the true nature of love, especially in its music. It is constantly reducing love to pure feelings, sexual pleasure, and shallow romanticism. While these are all often components of love (though individually they do not need to be present), none of them are the whole.
Delta is a breath of fresh air. It asks our culture the real questions: “Does my love prefer the other? Or does my love just make me feel good?” For a culture that has been force fed the lie that love is only pleasure and is only what is convenient in the moment, these lyrics hold unbelievable weight. Mumford is nearly quoting Thomas Aquinas’ definition of love verbatim, who defines love as willing the good of the other for the sake of the other.
Mumford rejects the idea that love is a convenient act—love is anything but convenient. It is something that forces us outside of ourselves. They sing, “But I’ll meet you at the delta / Where the rivers run into the sea” He is willing to meet the one he loves where chaos and peace meet: the place of love. Love is uncomfortable, chaotic in a way, but ultimately it brings peace, beauty, and goodness.
Where love pushes someone outside of themselves, there will be discomfort or even full on suffering. This is another theme of love that Slip Away touches on. Mumford recognizes that suffering is a reality inherent in love and he invites the other to suffer with him: “You’ll find me waiting here for you / Come and suffer here / You’ll find me holding my breath for you / Come and suffer here.” He is waiting for a person and waiting for love. Though he sees that the love will bring pain, he obviously sees it as worth the pain—especially if the suffering is a lived experience with the person he loves.
In addition to breaking down these false views of love, Mumford and Sons balances the overly theological view of love that often times reduces love to an emotionless act with the proper amount of emotion contained in love. I know when I learned about these realities in college, every emphasis was put on the act of the will (as it should have been since the culture taught the exact opposite), but the reality and importance of emotions in love was often times ignored.
As humans, love can oftentimes be is a very emotional act. It is not pure emotion, but it is an inescapable reality. Mumford does a great job of conveying what good emotion looks like when it comes to love. In Rose of Sharon they write, “Come crashing in like a wildfire, I’m left in awe of you / Every time I close the door, I’m left wanting more of you.” Desire and awe are the good fruit of love. They leave the lover wanting more and greater love. Even though they are often fleeting emotions, they play a role.
With emotions comes irrationality—a wild heart. Mumford writes: “It took a wild heart to tame mine / And it took a wild heart to chance / Now a wild heart’s gone and floored me / With this everlasting glance” As emotive humans, we can’t help but long for a love that is overflowing with passion. We all desire a wild heart that lives for us and that turns our hearts wild as well. We want the glance that pierces our hearts with joy and suffering, even though it seemingly makes no sense.
They go on, “I wouldn’t have it any other way / Who wants a love that makes sense anyway / I wouldn’t have you any other way / I don’t want a love that makes sense anyway.” It’s clear to me when I listen to this song that God is the ultimate wild heart. Nothing about creating us makes sense. It is all for us, and for no other reason—because we might enjoy it. His love is beyond the rational, constantly seeking out wayward hearts, offering seemingly endless mercy and meaning.
In the ways of the world, it is completely illogical, but it is the logic of God that matters with love. Love is by its nature a paradox; choosing the good of the other over the self is what really gives life. It is both rational and irrational, emotional and logical. It is the paradox that defines humanity.
Mumford and Sons beautifully wrote this album offering a complete definition of love: the (sometimes emotional) willing the good of the other for their sake and not our own. It is sometimes painful, but it is what ultimately gives life meaning.
