About "Cry me a river."

[round]

There is a song "Cry me a river"(1953).
How should I analyze this title grammatically?

My opinion:
Cry(Vt) me(Indirect Object) a river(Direct Object).
This sentence has a parallel construction to:
He shed me tears of joy.
=He shed tears of joy for me.

"A river" here is a metaphor for "tears like a river" or "a river of tears." And "cry" here is used as a transitive verb like:
-They lived a happy life.
-He died a miserable death.

But some say, "a river" here functions as an adverb like "Thanks a lot." and others say,"Cry me a river" is the same as "Cry [for] me a river. "For" was dropped due to some musical purpose/reason.

In dictionaries, I can find "cry" as a transitive verb.
However, I can only find an example sentence like:
He cried tears of joy.
I cannot find any example sentences with the SVOO construction.

Please let me hear your opinion regarding how I should grammatically analyze "Cry me a river."

Thank you in advance.

 

[mdchachi]

In my deep 60 second analysis, I find myself agreeing with you. It seems analogous to constructions like "Tell me a story," "Make me a cake" and "Shoot me a deer."

 

[Majestic]

In my slightly-more-in-depth 65 second analysis: Cry in cry me a river is an imperative. The subject of "you" is implied. I think this is called the transitive imperative. I could be wrong. It could be both transitive and intransitive (as is hinted by this website below).
Verbs and Verbals

 

[BillMad]

Not related but whats up with your profile pic? Is there some significance to superman holding the image?

 

[round]

Not related but whats up with your profile pic? Is there some significance to superman holding the image?

No meaning. That photo was taken at a photo studio. My wife chose that template, because our first son loved Superman.