What It Is

The writer is observing the daily pettiness of human behavior, while the importance of solitude and loneliness are on his mind. On this particular night, people are not just eating, they're "shoveling food", getting drunk, complaining, as if they didn't have any real worries.

All the while, the writer is observing "frost on the graves" and people waiting in line at the homeless shelters and soup lines.

They are protected in the night by the garrison and the toll taker. But, the garrison is asleep watching over nothing but old ghosts, and the toll taker is cold and has someone on his mind.

It's modern times. Places change, but, people stay the same. The dungeon doors, the castle, the horse and wagons all suggest that people have been doing the same meaningless activities for hundreds of years. So, what's changed? Here, Knopfler hints at the Iron Hand from his final DS album.

A lone piper plays the national instrument of Scotland and sets the songs tone, as the writer is thinking about someone he's lost. His observances of a carefree society in the midst of loss and despair yields the answer, "It's what it is." There's people with small worries, and then there's him.

The highland drummer joins the piper as the wind blows stronger, triggering the writer to shiver and remember a person from his past. With the "ghosts and the ancient stones" previously mentioned, this "something from the past just comes and stares into my soul" is likely someone who has died.

A brief mention of the Scottish Blues is another hint that the writer is lamenting for someone he's lost.

In the wee small hours as the lantern's are about to burn out, the writer confesses that he's been up all night writing lyrics. In an instant, he's back out on the street searching. He's still amongst the ancients. He and the ghost of Nathaniel Bentley (nicknamed Dirty Dick after his refusal to bath for the remainder of his life, as he grieved the death of his fiancé on their wedding day in the late 1700's) are still in search of Little Nell. The writer is in search of his lost love, just as Bentley kept in search of his. Bentley never threw away their wedding cake, allowing it to decay on the dining room table. Bentley used to wait by his fiancé's grave for her return.

Knopfler purposely references Bentley, as he too in this song is still searching for those lost "arms to fall into".

For those who have lost someone dear to them, and are forced to observe the daily petty behavior of people, there is only but one thing to say in the end, "It is what it is". It's what it is, now.