Starry, starry night
Paint your palette blue and grey
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
And how you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free
They would 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

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

For they could not love you
But still your love was true
And when no hope was left in sight
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
A silver thorn, a bloody rose
Lie crushed and broken on the virgin snow

Now I think I know
What you tried to say to me
And how you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free
They would not listen, they're not listening still
Perhaps they never will


Lyrics submitted by Novartza, edited by colin57

Vincent Lyrics as written by Don Mclean

Lyrics © CONSALAD CO., Ltd., Universal Music Publishing Group

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Vincent (Starry Starry Night) song meanings
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  • +2
    Song Meaning

    I can't find a single mention of this reference on Google, so I thought I'd post it here for posterity:

    The "silver thorn" line is referring to Oscar Wilde's short story "The Nightingale and the Rose", in which a nightingale <spoiler alert> pierces its heart with the thorn of a rose in order to turn it red, so that a student may give it to a girl he likes. However, the girl rejects him, and the boy angrily throws the rose into the gutter.

    archagonon November 06, 2010   Link

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