Tonight’s song has no words at all. It’s a tune played on the whistle by Finbar Furey, slow and lonely, with the sound of a river behind it. The title is our only clue: The Lonesome Boatman.
Learn from Songs · Specials: Ireland · B1
The Lonesome Boatman
Finbar Furey’s haunting tune for the whistle, a song without words: a story-writing lesson. Narrative tenses to tell the story you hear, it sounds like / it reminds me of, adjectives and adverbs of feeling and sound, with Philo, Sophia, Marcos and Demetria.
SOPHIA
MARCOS
No words? How can we learn English from it?
SOPHIA
You will write the words. Close your eyes, listen, and imagine the story: who is the boatman, where is he going, and why is he alone?
DEMETRIA
Oh, I like this. A story we invent ourselves.
Before you listen: the song
Ireland, 1969
Finbar Furey comes from an Irish Traveller family famous for music; his father was a fiddler and piper. With his brothers he formed the Fureys, who sang “The Green Fields of France” with Davey Arthur in our Remembrance Sunday lessons.
Finbar is a master of the uilleann pipes and the whistle. He wrote “The Lonesome Boatman” and recorded it with his brother Eddie in 1969. It has become one of the best-known Irish instrumental pieces, played at concerts, in films and at funerals.
The tune tells a story without words. Each listener hears something different: a boatman alone on a river at dawn, a journey into exile, a farewell, or a homecoming.
Music can tell a story without words.
Listen: the story in the tune
PHILO
Listen with your eyes closed. Write down five pictures you see. What time of day is it? What is the weather like?
SOPHIA
Then answer Section A.
🛶 Listen to the song: “The Lonesome Boatman” (Finbar Furey), played by Finbar Furey.Find the recording →
It sounds like…, it reminds me of…
MARCOS
It sounds like a bird crying. It sounds sad. It reminds me of my grandfather. It makes me feel lonely.
SOPHIA
sound + adjective (It sounds sad), sound like + noun (It sounds like wind). remind someone of = make them think of. make + person + feel + adjective.
Narrative tenses for your story
DEMETRIA
The mist was rising from the river. The boatman pushed off from the shore. He had said goodbye to everyone the night before.
SOPHIA
past continuous for the scene; past simple for events; past perfect for what happened earlier. These three tenses tell almost every story.
Adjectives and adverbs of feeling and sound
PHILO
a haunting tune, a lonely figure, the water lapped softly, he rowed slowly, a distant bell.
SOPHIA
Adjectives describe nouns: a slow tune. Adverbs describe verbs: he played slowly. Useful words: haunting, gentle, mournful, peaceful, distant, faint, echoing.
Sophia’s comparison: Charon and Jonah
SOPHIA
The Greeks say that Charon, the old ferryman, rows the souls of the dead across the river Styx, alone, back and forth for ever. A lonely boatman indeed.
PHILO
And Jonah went down to Joppa and found a ship going far away, because he was running from what he had to do. Not every journey across the water is a journey towards something.
MARCOS
Mine would be a fishing trip.
Sophia’s summary
| Words and forms | Use | Example |
|---|---|---|
| sound + adjective / sound like + noun | describing sounds | It sounds sad. It sounds like the wind. |
| remind someone of | make someone think of | It reminds me of home. |
| make + person + feel + adjective | effect on feelings | It makes me feel calm. |
| past continuous / simple / perfect | telling a story | The mist was rising when he left. |
| haunting, mournful, distant, softly | descriptive words | a haunting tune |
Practice
Listen to the song for Section A, then do the rest. Press “Check my answers” at the end. You can try again as many times as you like.
A · Listen: the song
Listen to the song and choose the best answer.
1. What is special about this piece?
2. What instrument plays the tune?
3. Who wrote it?
4. Who did he record it with?
5. Which famous song did the Fureys sing with Davey Arthur?
6. What does the title tell us?
B · Grammar and vocabulary
Write the missing word or words.
7. The tune sounds . (feeling)
8. It sounds the wind.
9. It reminds me my grandfather.
10. The mist was when he left. (rise)
11. He had goodbye the night before. (say)
12. He rowed across the river. (slow)
C · Right or wrong?
Is the sentence correct English?
13. “It sounds like sad.”
14. “The music makes me feel peaceful.”
15. “It reminds me my home.”
16. “He played very gentle.”
Talk and write
Discussion and writing
The story in the tune. Listen again in groups. Each person adds one sentence to a story about the boatman, using past continuous, past simple or past perfect. Read your group’s story aloud while the music plays.
Discuss. 1. Can music without words tell a story? 2. What did you imagine while listening? Was it the same as your partner? 3. What music would you choose for a sad film, a happy film, a scary film?
Write (150–180 words). The Lonesome Boatman. Write the story you heard in the music. Use the three narrative tenses, sound / sound like, and at least six descriptive adjectives and adverbs.
Now play the gamebook: a boatman lost in the mist.Play the gamebook →