The Hounds Of Winter

Has he said it's about his divorce? I think it's about someone who died. There are a couple of reasons for this. He says "Where she's gone I will surely, surely follow." We all die eventually, but don't generally follow our ex-wives around. He goes on to say "The Hounds of Winter - They got me in their sights." "Got me in their sights" generally means in the sight of a sniper's gun.

This is a GREAT song! The lyrics and the background music go so WELL together. Sting is just an incredible musician and lyricist. He's just amazing.. LOL! Ok enough Sting gushing, on to the song's meaning to me..

I guess this song was made about his divorce and he's describing this cold, lonely, dark winter alone to show his intense lonelyness and his desolation and his pain from losing someone he loved he feels so cold and lonely in his heart.

I like this song as well. The creative insertion of the cd title "Mercury Falling" in this song and in "Lithium Sunset" is quite clever. I also like the use of "Mercury Falling" as musical imagery because it could mean a few things. Does it refer to Mercury, messenger for the gods, falling or does it refer to a sudden marked drop in the thermostat? Perhaps both.

The album title, 'Mercury Falling', is drawn from the lyrics of the first song, 'The Hounds of Winter'. Says Sting, who wrote most of the album in his Wiltshire home: "The line 'mercury falling' is very literal. It was getting colder and I wanted to write a song about the winter... And it's a phrase that's resonant with references. Mercury is so many things. It's a liquid, an element, a planet, a poison, a god. So it was redolent of all of those references. And I also feel that if you describe the album, it's very mercurial."

This is quite interesting as this must be his first feelings on his divorce...and then he realizes he is happy, hence the song "I'm So Happy That I Can't Stop Crying", which is towards the end of the same album.

It seems like the entire album "Mercury Falling" is about his wife and his divorce, pretty much all the songs have to do with this topic.

I love this song. My first wife walked out on our marriage at the beginning of November, so the juxtaposition of loss and the cold winter has real resonance for me. Even now, over 2 decades later, and happily married again, I still sometimes feel down at that same point in the year.

As ever, Sting has this amazing ability to capture in words what so many of us feel.

I think it's about the loss of his dog. On the inside cover there is a picture of him and his Irish wolf hound.