Song Details
- Album Release Date: 2012
- Genre: folk
Song Meaning of “Mississippi Isabel” by King Charles
“Mississippi Isabel” is a song about longing for the one you love, and the struggle of being away from them. It portrays a longing for the past, when the singer was with someone they truly loved.
The song begins by speaking consciously about all the places the singer has been and all the ways they’ve felt, but none of these is as meaningful as being with his “darling Isabel”. He longingly wishes to run away with her “down that Mississippi mile”, meaning he wants to escape to a romantic place far away from his current pain.
The song describes the turbulence of being away from the person they love, but still longing for them imperfectly. The chorus speaks of the immense pain of love saying “I wish I’s with Isabel, oh I’m hoping for a smile, I’m feeling so lonesome, I feel it in my bones, nobody knows, nobody knows”. The lyrics here stress the longing for their partner and the pain of not being with them.
The second verse talks about the singers long for the past when he was with “Isabel by the fireside”. The lyrics stress the feeling of his love for her even when she’s gone. He speaks of how he’s trying to stay strong without her in his life, but struggles to remain the same. The sorrow of this feeling of displacement is expressed in ways like, “When I’s walking this way my courage I can feel”.
Overall, “Mississippi Isabel” is a song about the internal battles of wanting to be with someone yet being disconnected from them geographically. Although it can be hard to be away from the one you love, the singer learns to stay strong in these trying times.