Wolves

I feel it's not just temptation or jealousy, it's both these things and other things. The wolves are all the doubts and problems and negative things in a relationship. "I started listening to the wolves in the timber" when he starts listening to the doubts in his mind.

"Then winter came and there was little left between us Skin and bones of love won't make a meal I felt my eyes lifting over your shoulder There were wolves at the edge of the field" -Winter just means any hard time, here, probably a time of financial difficulty. The wolves come closer, all he has to do is look away from her for a moment.

"One day I just woke up and the wolves were all there" - his doubts are everywhere. At the end of the song he's lost her and he's made up only of his doubts, all the negative things.

This is my interpretation, and what the song means to me. Not necessarily the actual meaning of the song.

My ex-husband had me listen to this song early in our relationship in 2010. We tried for 5 years but our mutual mental health issues left us unable to stay together, but we stayed best friends and talked weekly as I moved across the country. Neither of us knew he had schizophrenia, he succumbed to full schizophrenic delusions during the pandemic and was hospitalized after violent episodes. He said he could feel it from his early 20's, from the time we loved this song. For me the wolves were there before our marriage when my "hands were naked" and we danced to this song he loved. He could see the wolves as I left. Since our divorce he woke up cold and lonesome never getting into another relationship. One day he woke up with the wolves everywhere, very literally the wolves took over his existence until they were controlling his whole life. And now I listen to this song to remember the past, even if it makes me cry.

[Edit: Grammar ]

I am taking a shot at the dark on this one. My best guess is that "wolves" represent lingering feelings of jealousy. Wolves possessed him and broke up their relationship; he became jealous, a wolf, himself; and now he roams like a wolf in search of another lover, but still thinks of her.

wolves= lonesome memories. that's it

My impression was that the wolves in the song signified temptation. Now he has lonesome memories of his old lover.

The line 'I felt my eyes lifting over your shoulder' does sound like it symbolizes his eyes looking over the shoulder of his partner to look at another woman. I agree with the temptation theory.

The line 'I felt my eyes lifting over your shoulder' does sound like it symbolizes his eyes looking over the shoulder of his partner to look at another woman. I agree with the temptation theory.

I almost feel that it's about a fear of intimacy. He's looking back on a time when he was content and in love, but then came the fear (the wolves) and he just couldn't overcome it.

It seems to me that "your hands were naked" refers to "before we were engaged" - the song is about more than a mere breakup, but a broken engagement.

So while I can understand where most of the thoughts on intimacy are coming from, I wonder the following:

The lyrics "singing without knowing the words" stick out to me... while all the time, the wolves are getting closer, he is getting further and further from the one he is dancing with.

What if he was going along with the relationship (dancing) without really knowing what he was doing (singing without knowing the words), and reality (the wolves?) continued getting closer and closer until realization came that he was not in the right place (woke up in the morning and they had arrived). He was obviously showing or voicing signs (howling- the wolves heard him) whether or not he knew it.

Perhaps this is of a relationship that is complacent and continuing but sooner or later, (perhaps in this instance, before an engagement or marriage- the hands being naked, that is?) reality hits (wolves advancing) and the 'dance' is over.