Lyrical — A Vocabulary Story
The Buskers of Marrakech
Marie had never heard anything like it. Standing in the bustling square of Jemaa el-Fnaa, surrounded by the scent of saffron and grilled lemon, she clutched her mother's hand and listened. A young busker named Hassan was tuning a battered oud, his fingers moving with practised ease.
"Stay close," her mother whispered, but Marie was already drifting nearer.
Hassan began to play. The melody was lyrical, weaving between the chatter of vendors and the cries of storytellers. An older musician, Suresh, joined in on a small hand drum, and together they spun something extraordinary into the dusty air.
Lyrical means having a pleasantly musical, flowing quality. It also means expressing emotion in an imaginative and poetic way.
"That tune," Marie said when they paused, "it sounds like a poem."
Hassan grinned. "It is a poem. My grandmother's. She wrote lyrical verses about the desert, and I set them to music."
"Could you teach me one?"
Suresh laughed kindly. "What a musical ear this girl has."
For twenty minutes, Hassan taught Marie the chorus, correcting her pronunciation gently. Her voice wobbled at first, then steadied, finding the lyrical rise and fall of the Arabic words. A small crowd gathered, charmed by the foreign girl singing such a lyrical old song.
When they finally left, coins jingling in Hassan's tin, Marie's mother shook her head, smiling. "You'll remember this forever."
Marie already knew. Some lyrical moments simply refuse to fade.
Word Definition
lyrical
meaning
having a pleasantly musical, flowing quality; expressing emotion in an imaginative and poetic way
synonyms
melodic · poetic · expressive · musical · flowing
antonyms
prosaic · unmusical · flat · literal
example sentence
The poet's lyrical descriptions of the countryside moved many readers to tears.