So Doggone Lonesome

The speaker is trying to hide how unhappy he feels after his beloved has left, but questions from other people make the loss harder to conceal. He considers moving on or continuing to wait, yet his loneliness grows strongest at night. By the end, he accepts that he will keep loving her, even though he knows this may leave him hurting.

“Hide this lowdown feeling” means trying not to show sadness or distress. The speaker’s heart “crying” is an image of intense inner pain, not a literal sound. He also says time stands still while he waits: this suggests that loneliness makes even a short hour feel extremely long. “Dog-gone lonesome” is an informal, emphatic way to say deeply lonely.

The song presents devotion as both comforting and painful. The speaker believes loving her is right, but his repeated waiting and inability to get her off his mind suggest he may be trapped in grief rather than making a free choice. His claim that he does not care if the sun rises without her sounds like an expression of despair, though it may also be dramatic language for heartbreak. We cannot tell whether he will ever reunite with her; the lyrics leave him suspended between hope and loss.