The Meaning of Shape of You by Ed Sheeran

Shape of You is a track from the Divide album by Ed Sheeran. It has been pushed around as a single and topped a lot of charts. It took me awhile to get accustomed to this type of song from Ed Sheeran as it seemed a bit different from the rest of his works. At first I wasn’t really sure about it, and while I don’t think it’s his best song, I’ve decided it’s not too bad.

So let’s see if we can make some sense of the song.

Verse 1:

The club isn’t the best place to find a lover
So the bar is where I go
Me and my friends at the table doing shots
Drinking fast and then we talk slow

Typically the club is more of a dance / one night stand area that very rarely results in anything but hookups and one night stands, very rarely do two people meet up in a nightclub and end up happily married.

On the other hand, meeting in the bar isn’t considered any different, however, in this instance of it being used what is being implied is that he would rather get to know someone through conversation and have a more intimate although slightly intoxicated conversation with that person instead.

Come over and start up a conversation with just me
And trust me I’ll give it a chance now
Take my hand, stop, put Van the Man on the jukebox
And then we start to dance, and now I’m singing like

In this part of the verse we see an intimate conversation turn into some spontaneous dancing with Van Morrison “Van the Man” playing on the jukebox. This is exactly what he was looking for.

Pre-Chorus

Girl, you know I want your love
Your love was handmade for somebody like me
Come on now, follow my lead
I may be crazy, don’t mind me
Say, boy, let’s not talk too much
Grab on my waist and put that body on me
Come on now, follow my lead
Come, come on now, follow my lead

He feels such a physical attraction to this person that there isn’t any need for conversation, hence the emphasis on not talking too much and stating that her love was handmade for somebody like me.

Chorus
I’m in love with the shape of you
We push and pull like a magnet do
Although my heart is falling too
I’m in love with your body
And last night you were in my room
And now my bedsheets smell like you
Every day discovering something brand new
I’m in love with your body
Oh—I—oh—I—oh—I—oh—I
I’m in love with your body
Oh—I—oh—I—oh—I—oh—I
I’m in love with your body
Oh—I—oh—I—oh—I—oh—I
I’m in love with your body
Every day discovering something brand new
I’m in love with the shape of you

The chorus essentially seals the deal, that although he is falling in love with her the physical attraction to her body is like nothing ever before. It’s all he can think about and falling in love is coming secondary to it.

We’ve all been in scenarios before (or most of us) where we can tell someone has been around by the smell in the air, so after he makes love to her, the scent of her (perfume) or whatever he is referencing, still lingers in his room and on his sheets and makes her body still fresh in his mind.

Verse 2:

One week in we let the story begin
We’re going out on our first date
You and me are thrifty, so go all you can eat
Fill up your bag and I fill up a plate

So after making “romance explosion” they are giving the other side of a relationship a chance and going out on a date. Being thrifty is a reference to having some things in common, which is being thrifty, maybe referencing that they aren’t about appearances or fancy things, but more in the “bang for the buck.”

We talk for hours and hours about the sweet and the sour
And how your family is doing okay
Leave and get in a taxi, then kiss in the backseat
Tell the driver make the radio play, and I’m singing like

Once again, they are able to have conversation together, but even after all that, the attraction is still there, so they can’t keep their hands off each other.

This is followed by the pre chorus and chorus again for emphasis and ends on a lot of repeats of “Come on, be my baby, come on” which probably has some roots in the 1963 song by The Ronettes called “Be My Baby”, which essentially means, be my girlfriend or let’s make this official.