But what does it mean?

I’m really into Bon Jovi (again) these days, and I’ve especially been listening a lot to “Bed of Roses”. I really like that song, but I’m not sure why. It seems to be a love song, about some guy on tour probably, missing his girl-friend at home. Some of the lyrics just make me wonder though:

“With an ironclad fist I wake up and French kiss the morning”

My English has become quite good over the last years, but I still can’t grasp the meaning of this. This might not be that strange, as I always seemed to be struggling a lot in workshops at uni as well when I had to give my opinion and interpretation of poems that other people had written. It always seems that in poetry, and very often lyrics are also poetry, there are so many hidden meanings in the chose of words, which are very hard for a non-native speaker to grasp. I have heard about dictators that rule their countries with an ironclad fist, and to me this chose of words seem to indicate anger and violence. I just can’t make out what it has to do with French kissing the morning – which probably means something completely different than the words used.

I’ve been searching the internet to see if Jon Bon Jovi has ever given some explanation or background history for the lyrics in “Bed of Roses”, but I’ve had no luck.

So, now I’m posting this on the internet, hoping that some of my English speaking friends, or other people just passing by, can explain it to me.