Is Sting’s Song “Shape of My Heart” About Gambling?

1993 relased “Shape of my heart” song is among the most famous and most listened songs from Sting. No need to explain for music lovers but film lovers can remember this track from the end credits of the 1994 film “Leon” and from the 1993 film “Three of Hearts”. According to a lot of people it is a perfect love song. However I want to examine it with a different perspective. Does “Shape of my heart” tell us about gambling?

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 first two stanzas of "Shape of my heart" by STING

First of all it is purely clear that in the first stanza Sting tells us about a gambler, a card player who plays these games not for money neither respect and he is certain about the moves that he had played, he has no doubt about it. Then we understand that he is in search of an answer about the cards. He called it the sacred geometry of chance but we prefer calling it as a some kind of mystical logic in luck, an almost religious law. He tries to figure out the determined rule about the propable outcomes.

Theories About The Sacred Geometry of Chance – Sting

Actually there are plenty different ideas about this law. Some says it is only about the poker and the order of the cards in that deck. He’s seeking this mystical logic so to satisfy his intellectual curiosity about chance. On the other hand some people say he doesn’t care about money or respect but he wants to learn the culture and the history about playing cards as well as gambling. In fact Sting supports this ideas with the other stanzas of the songs.

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
-The third stanza of "Shape of my heart" by STING

Not surprisingly, playing cards used to have some allegorical meanings. For example diamonds represent the merchant class and the excitement of wealth creation. Clubs represent the peasantry and spades represent the warrior class. In addition hearts stand for the clergy. To sum up we can also imagine a gambler in this song as a man who has dedicated himself to understand the completely everything about playing cards, as well as games.

References: en.wikipedia.org

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