“This world was never meant for one as beautiful as you.”
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’ve told you, Vincent
This world was never meant for
One as beautiful as you
— Don Mclean, Vincent aka Starry Starry Night, 1971, Art Quotes Art
McLean said the following about the genesis of the song:
“In the autumn of 1970 I had a job singing in the school system, playing my guitar in classrooms. I was sitting on the veranda one morning, reading a biography of Van Gogh, and suddenly I knew I had to write a song arguing that he wasn’t crazy. He had an illness and so did his brother Theo. This makes it different, in my mind, to the garden variety of ‘crazy’ – because he was rejected by a woman [as was commonly thought]. So I sat down with a print of Starry Night and wrote the lyrics out on a paper bag.”
continued on wikipedia
Art of Quotation 
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