Sting's "Shape of My Heart"

[GeneD]

May I ask your opinions about Sting's "Shape of My Heart"? The thing is, I've read the lyrics, and I'm confused as to what the poem really means. Being somewhat charmed by the first two verses, I went on thinking about the sense of the following lines and the sense, for me, began to steadily evaporate. At the end, I confess, I found myself at my wits' end. I even began to doubt whether there is any core sense connecting all the parts of the song.

Here are the first two lines I mentioned:
He deals the cards as a meditation
And those he plays never suspect
He doesn't play for the money he wins
He don't play for respect
He deals the cards to find the answer
The sacred geometry of chance
The hidden law of a probable outcome
The numbers lead a dance

The problem is that the chorus, following the two verses, being also somewhat philosophical, seems not to be thoroughly connected to them. (Especially the last statement (underlined).) Do they?

I know that the spades are the swords of a soldier
I know that the clubs are weapons of war
I know that diamonds mean money for this art
But that's not the shape of my heart

Well, there is some pacifists mood and sense in those lines. Maybe that's how they are connected. But the next verse I either don't really comprehend or it isn't very important. Maybe there is some metaphorical sense I can't work out by myself? What do you think of it?

He may play the jack of diamonds
He may lay the queen of spades
He may conceal a king in his hand
While the memory of it fades

And the following two are the end of my wits.

If I told her that I loved you
You'd maybe think there's something wrong
I'm not a man of too many faces
The mask I wear is one
But those who speak know nothing
And find out to their cost
Like those who curse their luck in too many places
And those who fear are lost

If thinking 'syntactically', the last verses might be the key to the whole poem. They seem to be about sincerity, but... Is that what was talked about in the first two verses and then in the chorus (also quite different, in my opinion)? What I see is the mystical "geometry of chance", then some kind of accusation of the very essense of the game, the metaphorical game of life maybe (the chorus), and finally (if I understand it correctly) a praise of sincerity or something like that. They seem to be very awkwardly connected. Aren't they?

Well, it's midnight here, and there sure to be some language barrier I can't overcome... Maybe in the morning the true sense of the song will dawn on me... I hope. But I also hope you will share your opinions on the issue. They will certainly help, even (or maybe especially) if there is no 'true' sense watsoever in the poem.

 

[Amigos4]

GeneD, you may find some guidance here.

 

[GeneD]

Thanks for the link. It helped A LOT!

The key point there is that the character is a poker player. It explains how the three parts I told about are connected. It turnes out that the song is about sincerity. And "the hidden geometry of chance" sounds somewhat ironical in this context. The key to the mysterious door of chance appears to be the poker face!

And not only did that forum help to connect those scrappy bits of sense into one, it also helped to understand that line I was beginning to consider meaningless ("He may play the jack of diamonds. He may lay the queen of spades...'). The only metaphor that's not clear to me there is the symbol of 'king' in 'He may conceal a king in his hand'. Do you have any ideas what it could mean?

The fact that I didn't figure out that the song was about the game of poker is interesting by itself. There must be some cultural defference here. The thing is, we don't play poker much in Russian speaking countries. And now I've got really curious. Do you native English speakers often play poker? Is it the most popular card game in the English-speaking world?