"I met Hank when he came to Nashville about three years before he died. We wrote a book together called 'How To Write Folk and Western Music To Sell.' One day I was over at Acuff-Rose, our mutual publisher, and Hank handed me a piece of paper and said, 'Do you think people will understand what I'm trying to say when I say this?' The line was 'Did you ever see a Robin weep when the leaves begin to die? It's because he's lost the will to live; I'm so lonesome I could cry.' Hank had this lonesome streak, and I think it was largely caused by his marital problems. I think he wrote it out of a feeling of loneliness that stayed very much with him. He would be the natural person to write 'I'm so lonesome I could cry!'"
 — Jimmy Rule

I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry

(Did you) hear that lonesome whippoorwill?
He sounds to blue to fly
The midnight train is whining low
I'm so lonesome I could cry.
I've never seen a night so long
When time goes crawling by
The moon just went behind a cloud
To hide its face and cry.
Did you ever see a Robin weep
When leaves began to die?
That means he's lost his will to live
I'm so lonesome I could cry.
The silence of a falling star
Lights up a purple sky
And as I wonder where you are
I'm so lonesome I could cry.