Learn English with Songs: “Vincent”

Good morning and welcome to Wednesday!

One of our students, Hildgund, sent us an email suggesting this beautiful song by Don McLean. This is the song we will be learning English with today.

Ready?

1. Read the lyrics
2. Understand the vocabulary
3. SING!

PS. Thanks Hildgund!

Lyrics

Starry, starry night
Paint your palette blue and gray
Look out on a summer’s day
With eyes that know the darkness in my soul
Shadows on the hills
Sketch the trees and the daffodils
Catch the breeze and the winter chills
In colors on the snowy linen land

Now I understand
What you tried to say to me
How you suffered for your sanity
How you tried to set them free
They did not listen, They did not know how
Perhaps they’ll listen now

Starry, starry night
Flaming flowers that brightly blaze
Swirling clouds in violet haze
Reflect in Vincent’s eyes of china blue
Colors changing hue
Morning fields of amber grain
Weathered faces lined in pain
Are soothed beneath the artist’s loving hand

For they could not love you
But still your love was true
And when no hope was left inside
On that starry, starry night
You took your life as lovers often do
But I could have told you Vincent
This world was never meant for one as
beautiful as you

Starry, starry night
Portraits hung in empty halls
Frameless heads on nameless walls
With eyes that watch the world and can’t forget
Like the strangers that you’ve met
The ragged men in ragged clothes
The silver thorn of bloody rose
Lie crushed and broken on the virgin snow
Now I think I know
What you tried to say to me
How you suffered for your sanity
How you tried to set them free
They did not listen they’re not listening still
Perhaps they never will

Vocabulary

Starry – full of stars.

Palette – he range of colors used by someone.

Shadows – a dark shape that appears on a surface when someone or something moves between the surface and a source of light.

Sketch – a quick, rough drawing that shows the main features of an object or scene.

Daffodils – a yellow flower that blooms in the spring and that has a center that is shaped like a long tube.

Chills – a cold feeling : a degree of cold that can be felt and that is usually unpleasant.

Snowy – having a lot of snow.

Linen – a smooth, strong cloth made from flax.

Sanity – the condition of having a healthy mind : the condition of being sane.

Flaming – having a bright or glowing red or orange color.

Blaze – an intense and dangerous fire.

Swirling – to move in circles or to cause (something) to move in circles.

Haze – dust, smoke, or mist that has filled the air so that you cannot see clearly.

Amber – a hard orange-yellow substance that can be polished and used for jewelry and other decorations.

Weathered – to change in color, condition, etc., because of the effects of the sun, wind, rain, etc., over a long period of time.

Soothed – to cause (someone) to be calmer, less angry, etc. .

Portraits – a painting, drawing, or photograph of a person that usually only includes the person’s head and shoulders.

Nameless – having a name that is not known or told.

Ragged – having an edge or surface that is not straight or even.

Video

Everyone is most welcome to send us their favourite songs and we will do our best to use them as the base of one of our “Learn English with Songs” post!