The Lonely lyrics by Christina Perri, 9 meanings. The Lonely explained, official 2024 song lyrics | LyricsMode.com
Request & respond explanations
  • Don't understand the meaning of the song?
  • Highlight lyrics and request an explanation.
  • Click on highlighted lyrics to explain.
Christina Perri – The Lonely lyrics
2am, where do I begin
Crying off my face again
The silent sound of loneliness
Wants to follow me to bed!

I'm the ghost of a girl
That I want to be most
I'm the shell
of a girl
That I used to know well

Dancing slowly in
an empty room
Can the lonely take the place of you
I sing myself a quiet lullaby
Let you go and let the lonely in
To take my heart again

Too afraid, to go inside
For the pain of one more loveless night
Cause the loneliness will stay with me
And hold me till I fall asleep

I'm the ghost of a girl
That I want to be most
I'm the shell of a girl
That I used to know well

Dancing slowly in an empty room
Can the lonely take the place of you
I sing myself a quiet lullaby
Let you go and let the lonely in
To take my heart again

Broken pieces of
A barely breathing story
Where there once was love
Now there's only me
And the lonely...

Dancing slowly in an empty room
Can the lonely
take the place of you
I sing myself a quiet lullaby
Let you go and let the lonely in
To take my heart again...
×



Lyrics taken from /lyrics/c/christina_perri/the_lonely.html

  • Email
  • Correct
Songwriters: CHRISTINA PERRI, DAVID HODGES
The Lonely lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Corrected by PTVfan

The Lonely meanings Post my meaning

  • U
    + 7
    Unregistered
    To me, this song shows the depression after a harsh breakup. She's letting her emotions overtake her in the desperate attempt to feel like she means something again. "i'm the ghost of a girl... " = when I had you, I was something. I'm nothing now. "a barely breathing story" = I can hardly breathe without you. "where there once was love, now there's only me... And the lonely. " = I'm trying so hard to find something to replace you and the love we shared. But that's over now, and it's so hard to find something to replace it. The loneliness is what you left me with. I can't be alone, so I may as well just let that become a part of my life. "dancing slowly in an empty room" = i'll dance alone. I'll pretend you're there. "can the lonely take the place of you? " = just give me air. Give me anything. But I can't take this solitude. Beautiful song.
    Add your reply
  • U
    + 5
    Unregistered
    It is as though whatever she does loneliness will always be there it's breaking her heart if anything it's worse than when he left her she's just a shell not who she was and maybe never will be again she is completely changed all she has lleft is clinging on to how it used to how could have been it feels like her only option her only way out is death but she's too scared for that what if he changed his mind and she was dead? So she just carries on with the pain even though it's slowly killing her she might get distracted for a little while but sooner or later the lonely comes back lonley is always there no matter what happens waiting in the shadows for the perfect opporunity to come along and wreck your life, your happiness, everything.
    Add your reply
  • U
    + 4
    Unregistered
    This is the inside story from a first person point of view of the pain and torture of an innoscent heart that has been violently tormented for years. Afraid of change and the feeling of re-trusting who you've once thought you could. Afraid to commit the same mistakes in shame once more due to the undying feeling of deep fear and embarrassment of a bleeding soul
    whats left for her? The external rough living on the outside of her personality "shell", she's completely forgotten who she is and now only cradles herself within the arms of lonliness. She wants to be alive again and truely "live" but the peices of her past "a barely breathing story" eternally haunts her, thus finding herself unable to rapture from this curse of a broken heart and overwhelming lonliness. So then saying "to take my heart again"
    -a broken 16 year old.
    Add your reply
  • U
    + 4
    Unregistered
    You give everything you have to the one you love, feeling they have always done the same. But then they cut your strings, the very esence of your happiness and being and you fall. Your left running over every second you spent with and thinking about them, even if you have aknowlaged that it wasn't your fault. Your just a ghost of who you were. Dancing around a room wich once held all your happiness, now stolen away from the one who was to protect it. All you have now is a space, an empty space that you long to be filled like how it had been. How you had been happy. All you can do is allow the lonely emptiness fill into the cracks in your heat, until maybe someone can distarct you long enough for you to forget its presence, but its always there waiting to wrap its cool arms around you, because its the one thing you know will always be there for you no matter what.
    Add your reply
  • U
    + 2
    Unregistered
    This song really applies to my past emotions. I felt so alone and left. It reached to the point where I tried to take my life. But then I realized how wonderful life is, I have my friends who never left me even when I became so distant and I have a loving family. It's all about how you see life, look at the positive side of everything and you'll end up feeling better. :) but this song wont get out of my head, I play it over and over again.
    Add your reply
  • U
    + 2
    Unregistered
    My parents say I remind them of christina when they listen to this song, I kinda see it I look like her I play piano like her and I had a hell of a break up from my long term partner a few years ago, when I listen to this song it brings it all back to me how I felt in the last days knowing deep down his feelings for me had changed getting into bed with a man who you know no longer loves you in the hope it will pass and when we finnaly split I was more alone than ever rattling around in my empty flat wondering if it would have been better to just carry on as we where being untrue to myself but I stuck out the dark days and I mean there where dark days but there is always hope and time. Over time I met the man off my dreams and know the man I go to bed with now adores me and would do anything for me no more tears at 2 am. Its such a beautifal song and reminds me how far iv come from them dark days.
    Add your reply
  • U
    + 2
    Unregistered
    I can relate to this song in a way no one would: you love someone so much you would do anything for them but they don't have the same sort of love for you and they go off with someone else and take the part of you that still loves them and your left a shadow and an outcast of the girl you use to be and the lonely is the only thing you have left in your life that is keeping you company and is the only thing that is keeping you from falling apart.
    Add your reply
  • o
    + 2
    oliveoyl
    Maybe Christina Perri crawled into my soul and wrote this song from the view she had there. What translates for me is a relationship that isn't equal. Being in a relationship with someone who cannot or will not love what is right there in front of them. And getting lost in that desperate attempt to prove yourself. And at 2am, coming face to face with the reality that its been for nothing. That you are all you've got. The love story has faded, the you who you used to be is a ghost, and you really just don't even know what end is up.
    Add your reply
  • t
    + 1
    taylorswift26
    Lonely girl. Who once used to be a piece of rose, her hope, trust are all broken with her broken heart nd she is lonely, quiet, afraid, sad, no one left to take care of her. Only she nd her tears, nd the beat of her broken heart nd her quiet lullaby, no peace no power no light in her life.
    All black. All is she. Nd a lonely dance of all the deep sad endings of all the worst siyuations of the world.
    So deep, so beautiful.
    Add your reply
    View 4 more meanings

    Write about your feelings and thoughts about The Lonely

    Know what this song is about? Does it mean anything special hidden between the lines to you? Share your meaning with community, make it interesting and valuable. Make sure you've read our simple tips.
    U
    Min 50 words
    Not bad
    Good
    Awesome!

    Top meanings Post my meaning

    • U
      + 7
      Unregistered
      To me, this song shows the depression after a harsh breakup. She's letting her emotions overtake... Read more →
    • U
      + 5
      Unregistered
      It is as though whatever she does loneliness will always be there it's breaking her heart if... Read more →

    official video

    Featured lyrics

    0-9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z