Musically: guitar from the previous track bleeds into this one, is then cut off. Harp and acoustic guitar are in the rest of the song. The harp part is played by the artist Timbre, who also plays on “In A Sweater Poorly Knit”.

Every thing I’d thought I’d learned   
Ambition and illusion turned   
To drawings on a loose leaf sheet   
Of figs and fruits I couldn’t eat

He realizes that he hasn’t actually learned all of the things he thought he’d learned. There are countless spiritual teachings, from parables from Jesus or in any other tradition, that are easily understood by the mind but sometimes take extra time to be known fully. 

“To drawings on a loose leaf sheet / Of figs and fruits I couldn’t eat”: you can draw a picture of food on the page but it’s not actually the fruit. In the same way, there are a lot of spiritual teachings in books but they are just words pointing toward something. To quote a different mewithoutYou lyric, “I said water expecting the word would satisfy my thirst.”

——————-

What in her do I require?   
The face of gratified desires   
And what in me does she require?   
The face of gratified desires

Regarding relationships between men and women, both are looking for merely the “face”, “lineaments”, or outward appearance of gratified desire. The lines imply that neither side is all that concerned about whether the outward expressions are honest or fake. These lines are a reference to William Blake’s Several Questions Answered, Part 17 of his Gnomic Verses:

1   
[Eternity]   
HE who bends to himself a Joy   
Doth the wingèd life destroy;   
But he who kisses the Joy as it flies   
Lives in Eternity’s sunrise.

2   
The look of love alarms,   
Because it’s fill’d with fire;   
But the look of soft deceit   
Shall win the lover’s hire.

3

Soft deceit and idleness,   
These are Beauty’s sweetest dress.

4   
[The Question answered]   
What is it men in women do require?   
The lineaments of gratified desire.   
What is it women do in men require?   
The lineaments of gratified desire.

5   
An ancient Proverb   
Remove away that black’ning church,   
Remove away that marriage hearse,   
Remove away that man of blood—   
You’ll quite remove the ancient curse.

——————-

Brownish spider, brownish leaf   
Brownish spider, brownish leaf   
Brownish spider, brownish leaf   
Confirms my deepest held belief

No more spider, no more leaf   
No more spider, no more leaf   
No more spider, no more leaf   
No more me, no more belief

By the end of the song, the spider, who has descended into a brownish color, is gone along with the leaf. This represents the death of self and “No more me, no more belief” suggests that the self dies along with belief.