This debut single from The Smiths captures a feeling of "complete loneliness," yet with a searingly poetic and jubilant undercurrent. Morrissey, who wrote the lyrics in two hours, was particularly proud of how the song expresses that even when hidden by rags, one can possess something others never will, reflecting his own feelings about not being able to afford clothes but not feeling mentally impoverished. The music, developed by Johnny Marr on acoustic guitar, weaves a melancholy, rain-soaked hopelessness with inspired bass patterns, creating a bleak proclamation of doomed happiness, self-loathing, loss, and desperation. At its heart, it plays like a defiant embrace of solitude and inner richness against outward appearances.