Splintering Heart

Introduction: Steve Hogarth wrote on Marillion.com "The lyric came to me in a flash early in February of 1990. I went for a walk in Toronto - I was on my way to the CN Tower* - the world's tallest structure or something like that - doing the tourist thing, and I wrote it down with a felt pen on a photo wallet that was the only piece of paper available. I was feeling lonely and I could sometimes feel it pricking at me. It's an icy place in February - Toronto - and I was imagining a heart shattering from it's own hardness... or coldness. I still like the imagery in the last verse... 'a cross for a kiss...' Aint that the truth?"

* The CN Tower was the world's tallest free-standing structure for thirty two years until 2007, when it was surpassed by the Burj Khalifa.

'A cross for a kiss'
A cross being the sign of kisses and affection at the end of a letter, derives from the Christian idea of the cross of Christ upon which Jesus showed his love for humanity by dying for their sins.

'The same sun is shining on the... saints and the sinners'
Arjan Dasselaar said: "Two lines of Splintering Heart can be found in Matthew 5: 45 (The Sermon on the Mount). However, because of interpretation differences there may be slight differences in translation between the original Greek texts and English/Dutch translations. My Dutch 'Statenvertaling' Bible says 'the evil and the good' instead of 'saints and the sinners' - but this translation is a Protestant one, and we all know they don't do saints!"

The King James version is as follows:

That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

Song Listing:

Songs with a link have explanations.