Fortress Around Your Heart

Album: Dream Of The Blue Turtles (1985)
Charted: 49 8
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  • Under the ruins of a walled city
    Crumbling towers and beams of yellow lights
    No flags of truce, no cries of pity
    The siege guns have been pounding through the nights
    It took a day to build the city
    We walked through its streets in the afternoon
    As I returned across the field's I'd known
    I recognized the walls that I'd once laid
    Had to stop in my tracks for fear
    Of walking on the mines I'd laid

    And if I built this fortress around your heart
    Encircled you in trenches and barbed wire
    Then let me build a bridge
    For I cannot fill the chasm
    And let me set the battlements on fire

    Then I went off to fight some battle
    That I'd invented inside my head
    Away so long for years and years
    You probably thought or even wished that I was dead
    While the armies are all sleeping
    Beneath the tattered flag we'd made
    I had to stop my tracks for fear
    Of walking on the mines I'd laid

    And if I built this fortress around your heart
    Encircled you in trenches and barbed wire
    Then let me build a bridge
    For I cannot fill the chasm
    And let me set the battlements on fire

    This prison has now become your home
    A sentence you seem prepared to pay
    It took a day to build the city
    We walked through its streets in the afternoon
    As I returned across the lands I'd known
    I recognized the fields where I'd once played
    Had to stop in my tracks for fear
    Of walking on the mines I'd laid

    And if I built this fortress around your heart
    Encircled you in trenches and barbed wire
    Then let me build a bridge
    For I cannot fill the chasm
    And let me set the battlements on fire Writer/s: Gordon Sumner
    Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
    Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 8

  • Another English Teacher from ThailandI love it when Sting time-travels to the Medieval times to keep us hip to the latest sounds. Seriously Great Song.
  • Seventhmist from 7th HeavenIt certainly is closer to the "Police sound" than anything else I ever heard from him. The first time I heard it, I thought he might have *reconciled* with his former bandmates.
  • Barry from Murrieta, CaThis song is about breaking up with a girl and realizing you made a mistake and trying to get back with her. The military terms are a metaphore for the barriers she has erected to keep you out.
  • Madzie from Manila, OtherWhen I first heard this song (during my younger years) I was so impress with the very good blending of the musical instruments and great lyrics.I was not wrong when this song was on top of chart.And the album "The dream of the blue turtle " was my very first Sting Album so I rate the whole album as one of the BEST!!!!!
  • Annabelle from Eugene, OrRight before the music starts, there's a sound that sounds somewhat like thunder. I wonder, what could that be? Is it a bomb? Is it a gun?
  • Tom from New York, NyIn military science, minefields are considered a defensive or harassing weapon, used to slow the enemy down, to help deny certain terrain to the enemy, to focus enemy movement into kill zones, or to reduce morale by randomly attacking matÃ?riel and personnel. Sting is making a statement about all interpersonal interaction. He believes one can't go further on the journey of life if one is shackled in a relationship. We need to be unfettered to move on.

  • Ryan from Fort Wayne, InDirect quote from Sting:

    "Fortress Around Your Heart is about appeasement, about trying to bridge the gaps between individuals. The central image is a minefield that you've laid around this other person to try and protect them. Then you realise that you have to walk back through it. I think it's one of the best choruses I've ever written.'
  • Chris from Hull, MaThis song is deeply emotional. Initially I thought it was about a man's inner turmoil - about being his own worst enemy. In essence, I suppose it is about that. I love this song's peaks and valleys. Sting, like Bono, has a very distinctive voice - you know it's him immediately. Another beautiful tune from Sting is "Shape of My Heart".
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