Melancholy Child
Journey of a Melancholy Child: Pam Tillis' Poignant Reflections
Lyrics
A baby with a baby just barely seventeen
A young mother, just seventeen years old, dealing with a baby
My mother mourned her innocence
The mother grieves the loss of her innocence
While she bounced me on her knee
Despite her sadness, she cares for the baby
A daddy on the road added to her tears and trials
The absence of the father due to traveling contributes to her hardships
Like silver rain they fell upon this melancholy child
The difficulties and sorrows fall heavily on the baby
The sounds of my childhood still linger in my song
Memories of childhood sounds resonate in the singer's music
My mother's lullaby that train that ran behind our home
Recollections of her mother's comforting song and a train passing by
A whippoorwill on a window sill - It should have made me smile
A bird's song that should bring joy feels lonely to the singer
But everything sounds lonesome to a melancholy child
Everything sounds lonely to the melancholy child
Now a restless blood runs in our family
A sense of restlessness and longing runs in the family
I thought I could out run the emptiness inside of me
The singer tries to escape her inner emptiness by acting recklessly
So I went a little crazy, went a little wild
Engaging in wild behavior to distance herself from her melancholic feelings
Trying to outdistance my own melancholy child
Attempting to outrun her own inner sadness
I met a kind and gentle man who thinks the world of me
The singer finds a loving man who appreciates her
And when he looks my way it is a woman that he sees
He sees her as a woman, despite her inner turmoil
But when I can't explain to him the tears that fill my eyes
She struggles to explain her tears to him
He takes me in his arms and rocks his melancholy child
He comforts her despite not fully understanding her melancholy
You take a black Irish temper and some solemn Cherokee
Describing her mixed heritage and personality traits
A Southern sense of humour and you got someone like me
Highlighting various aspects that contribute to her identity
There are thorns on every rose to this I'm reconciled
Accepting that difficulties exist in life, acknowledged and accepted
They're just a little sharper to a melancholy child
Challenges feel more acute to someone with a melancholic nature
And in my own babe's eyes I see the signs of melancholy child
The singer sees signs of melancholy in her own child
Heaven help us all, another melancholy child
An acknowledgment of another generation inheriting the same melancholy
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