I'm so Lonesome I Could Cry
Floyd Cramer his Piano and Orchestra Lyrics

Hear that lonesome whippoorwill?
Have you heard the sorrowful cry of the whippoorwill, it sounds as if it has lost all hope.

He sounds too blue to fly.
The whippoorwill's cry sounds melancholic to the point where it can't muster the energy to fly away.

The midnight train is whining low,
The train that runs at night is making a mournful sound as if it shares in the singer's heartache.

I'm so lonesome I could cry.
The singer is filled with an overwhelming sense of loneliness that brings him to tears.

I've never seen a night so long,
The night seems to drag on endlessly, amplifying the singer's feelings of isolation and loneliness.

When time goes crawling by.
The passage of time feels agonizingly slow, as if every second is a struggle.

The moon just went behind a cloud,
The moon, a source of comfort and light, has disappeared behind a cloud, further dimming the singer's world.

To hide its face and cry.
The singer imagines that the moon itself is weeping and hiding its face from the world.

Did you ever see a Robin weep,
Have you ever witnessed a Robin, which symbolizes happiness, overcome with despair and sadness?

When leaves begin to die?
As the leaves begin to die, the Robin seems to lose all hope and enthusiasm for life.

That means he's lost his will to live.
The Robin's sorrowful weeping is a sign it has lost its motivation to keep living.

I'm so lonesome I could cry.
The singer repeats his loneliness, emphasizing how profound and overwhelming the feeling is.

The silence of a falling star,
The singularity of a shooting star's descent brings him to silent contemplation and reflection of his state of being.

Lights up a purple sky.
The stunning sight of a shooting star illuminates a dusky sky, lighting up the darkness that surrounds him.

And as I wonder where you are,
As the singer ponders where his lost companion might be or what they might be doing, he feels a deep sense of longing and nostalgia.

I'm so lonesome I could cry.
The repetition of the chorus serves as a stark reminder of the depth of the singer's loneliness and emotional pain.