Auld Lang Syne

By Robert Burns

“Auld Lang Syne” is Robert Burns’s 1788 song in Scots asking whether old friends should be forgotten, and answering with a toast “for auld lang syne,” meaning “for old times’ sake.” Burns sent it to James Johnson’s Scots Musical Museum, where it was printed in 1796, the year of his death, and it is now sung at midnight on New Year’s Eve around the world.

Our reading is that the song is less about the new year than about two old friends meeting after a lifetime apart. Its famous opening question is rhetorical: of course we should not forget, and the drink is the proof.

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Summary · The Poem · In Modern English · Background · Analysis and Themes · Form and Technique · Notable Lines · Themes · FAQ
Glossary · In Popular Culture · Related Poems

Summary

The singer asks whether old friendships and the days of long ago should be forgotten, and the chorus answers by proposing a “cup o’ kindness” for old times’ sake. Each of the two friends will buy a drink, and together they remember their childhood: running over the hillsides picking daisies and paddling in a stream from morning until midday.

Since then, they have wandered far and “seas between us braid hae roar’d.” The song ends with the friends clasping hands and sharing a hearty drink of goodwill, for auld lang syne.

The Poem

The text below follows the Project Gutenberg edition of Poems and Songs of Robert Burns. The chorus is sung after every verse, as the “For auld, &c.” markers show.

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And auld lang syne!

Chorus.—For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne.
We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.

And surely ye’ll be your pint stowp!
And surely I’ll be mine!
And we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.
For auld, &c.

We twa hae run about the braes,
And pou’d the gowans fine;
But we’ve wander’d mony a weary fit,
Sin’ auld lang syne.
For auld, &c.

We twa hae paidl’d in the burn,
Frae morning sun till dine;
But seas between us braid hae roar’d
Sin’ auld lang syne.
For auld, &c.

And there’s a hand, my trusty fere!
And gie’s a hand o’ thine!
And we’ll tak a right gude-willie waught,
For auld lang syne.
For auld, &c.

Auld Lang Syne in Modern English

Our line-by-line translation of Burns’s Scots into modern English follows. “Auld lang syne” itself means “old long since,” or “long ago,” and in the chorus it works like “for old times’ sake.”

Should old acquaintance be forgotten,
And never brought to mind?
Should old acquaintance be forgotten,
And the days of long ago!

Chorus: For old times’ sake, my dear,
For old times’ sake,
We’ll drink a cup of kindness yet,
For old times’ sake.

And surely you’ll buy your pint cup!
And surely I’ll buy mine!
And we’ll drink a cup of kindness yet,
For old times’ sake.

We two have run about the hillsides,
And picked the pretty daisies;
But we’ve wandered many a weary foot
Since long ago.

We two have paddled in the stream,
From morning sun till dinnertime;
But broad seas have roared between us
Since long ago.

And here’s a hand, my trusty friend!
And give me a hand of yours!
And we’ll take a hearty drink of goodwill,
For old times’ sake.

Background

“Auld Lang Syne” grew out of older Scottish songs. A ballad called “Old Long Syne” was printed by James Watson in 1711, and the phrase “auld lang syne” was common in Scottish verse long before Burns. In 1788, Burns sent his version to James Johnson for The Scots Musical Museum, a large collection of Scottish songs to which he contributed hundreds of texts. Burns described it as an old song he had taken down from an old man’s singing, but most of the verses as we know them are his own work.

Burns died on July 21, 1796, and the song appeared in the fifth volume of the Museum that year. In 1799, George Thomson’s Select Songs of Scotland printed it with a different melody, and that tune, not the one Burns had in mind, is the one sung today. Singing it at midnight at Hogmanay, the Scottish New Year, spread with Scottish emigrants across the English-speaking world during the 1800s.

Analysis and Themes

Most people know only the first verse and chorus, and many are unsure what they mean. Read whole, the song tells a small story: two friends who grew up together meet again after long years and far travels, and drink to what they share.

A Question That Answers Itself

“Should auld acquaintance be forgot, / And never brought to mind?” sounds like a real question, and people often take it as one. It is rhetorical. The chorus answers at once: no, we will remember, and we will drink to it. The song is not about forgetting the past to make way for the new year but about carrying old friendship forward.

Childhood and Distance

The middle verses give the friendship a history. The two ran over the “braes” picking “gowans,” or daisies, and paddled in the “burn” all morning. Then comes the turn: “But we’ve wander’d mony a weary fit,” and “seas between us braid hae roar’d.” The friends have lived long, separate lives, perhaps on different continents. That distance is what gives the reunion its weight.

A Cup o’ Kindness

The song’s central image is a shared drink. Each friend will “be your pint stowp,” pay for his own tankard, so the toast is between equals. The last verse adds a handshake and a “right gude-willie waught,” a deep, goodwilled drink. Burns turns an ordinary tavern moment into a ritual of loyalty, which is exactly how the song is still used: people join hands and sing it together.

Form and Technique

The song has five four-line verses and a four-line chorus, which is sung after each verse. It is written in ballad meter, alternating lines of four and three beats, as in “should AULD ac-QUAINT-ance BE for-GOT, / and NEV-er BROUGHT to MIND,” and each verse rhymes on its second and fourth lines.

Its power comes from repetition and from the Scots language. The phrase “auld lang syne” ends almost every verse, so the whole song keeps returning to the same point, like a toast repeated around a table. Burns’s Scots words, such as “braes,” “gowans,” “burn,” and “fere,” root the memories in a particular landscape and speech, and give the song a warmth that its many English translations never quite match.

Notable Lines

These lines carry the song from its question to its toast.

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?

Lines 1 to 2

The famous opening, a question whose answer is plainly no.

We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.

Lines 7 to 8

The chorus’s answer. “Yet” means “still” or “even now”: after all these years, we will drink together.

But seas between us braid hae roar’d
Sin’ auld lang syne.

Lines 21 to 22

The saddest lines in the song, measuring the distance between childhood and now.

Themes

Three ideas run through the song.

Friendship. The song celebrates loyalty between old friends, sealed with a shared drink and a handshake.

Memory. Childhood scenes of hills, daisies, and streams are kept alive by being remembered together.

Time and distance. Years and oceans have separated the friends, but the song insists that the bond survives both.

Frequently Asked Questions

These are the questions people most often ask about “Auld Lang Syne.”

What does “auld lang syne” mean?

“Auld lang syne” is Scots for “old long since,” meaning “long ago” or “days gone by.” In the chorus, “for auld lang syne” means “for old times’ sake.”

Who wrote “Auld Lang Syne”?

Robert Burns wrote the version sung today in 1788, adapting an older Scottish song. It was published in The Scots Musical Museum in 1796, the year he died.

What language is “Auld Lang Syne” in?

It is in Scots, the Lowland Scottish language closely related to English. Words such as “auld” (old), “braes” (hillsides), and “fere” (friend) are Scots.

Why is “Auld Lang Syne” sung on New Year’s Eve?

It became part of Hogmanay, the Scottish New Year, and Scottish emigrants carried the custom around the world in the 1800s. Bandleader Guy Lombardo’s New Year’s Eve broadcasts from 1929 onward made it the standard midnight song in North America.

What are the words to “Auld Lang Syne” in English?

The first verse and chorus in modern English are: “Should old acquaintance be forgotten, and never brought to mind? Should old acquaintance be forgotten, and the days of long ago! For old times’ sake, my dear, for old times’ sake, we’ll drink a cup of kindness yet, for old times’ sake.”

Glossary

The Scots words in the song, in order of appearance.

• auld (line 1): Old.
• lang syne (line 4): Long since; long ago.
• tak (line 7): Take; here, drink.
• pint stowp (line 9): A pint tankard; “be your pint stowp” means pay for your own drink.
• twa (line 14): Two.
• braes (line 14): Hillsides.
• pou’d (line 15): Pulled; picked.
• gowans (line 15): Daisies.
• mony (line 16): Many.
• fit (line 16): Foot.
• paidl’d (line 19): Paddled; waded.
• burn (line 19): A stream.
• dine (line 20): Dinnertime, the midday meal.
• braid (line 21): Broad.
• fere (line 24): Friend or companion.
• gie’s (line 25): Give me.
• gude-willie waught (line 26): A hearty drink taken in goodwill.

In Popular Culture

Few poems are sung by more people every year.

From 1929, Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians played it at midnight on their New Year’s Eve radio and later television broadcasts from New York, fixing it as North America’s New Year’s song. At the last verse, singers traditionally cross their arms and join hands in a circle.

The song closes Frank Capra’s film It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), and in When Harry Met Sally… (1989) Harry wonders aloud what the words actually mean. Its melody is also used in Japan for “Hotaru no Hikari,” a song traditionally played at graduations and store closings.

Related Poems

If this song speaks to you, these are good to read next.

• Ring Out, Wild Bells by Alfred Tennyson: The other great New Year’s poem, ringing out the old year and ringing in the new.
• A Red, Red Rose by Robert Burns: Burns’s other famous song, a love lyric also reworked from older Scottish material.
• To a Mouse by Robert Burns: A Scots poem that shares this song’s tenderness and its sense of time passing.
• The Solitary Reaper by William Wordsworth: A Romantic poem about a Scottish song whose meaning the listener cannot catch but never forgets.