Auld Lang Syne meaning

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New Year's Eve celebrations across the UK aren't complete without a chorus or two of Robert Burns'
famous 'Auld Lang Syne'! Written as a poem to be set to music, 'Auld Lang Syne' celebrates old
friendships and happy memories of the good old days. We will explore the context, meaning,
language devices, imagery, and key themes of 'Auld Lang Syne'.

Written in 1788

First 1796
published

Written by Robert Burns (nickname Rabbie Burns)

Form/Style Song/ballad form

Meter Alternating lines of iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter.Refrain in

iambic dimeter.

Rhyme ABAB / ABCB

scheme

Poetic Scots language

devices Rhetorical Questions
Repetition
Metaphor

Frequently Drinking
noted Nature
imagery

Tone Joyful/Celebratory

Key Friendship
themes Childhood
Memories

Meaning The speaker calls on us to consider whether it is right (or even possible!)
to forget old friends and lose our memories of the good old times. The
speaker describes happy childhood memories of running and playing
freely in nature with his friend, and how he and his friend have since
gone their separate ways through life. The speaker and his friend reunite
down the pub with a handshake and a hearty drink to the good old days!

Biographical context
Robert Burns was born on January 25th in Alloway, Scotland. Robert Burns grew up in a poor
farming family which moved from farm to farm during his childhood, finding no financial success.

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Robert Burns' career as a poet

In 1786, Robert Burns was in serious financial difficulty on his failing farm in Mossgiel so he
planned to emigrate to Jamaica for work. To raise money for his journey to Jamaica, Robert Burns
published his first poetry collection Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect (commonly known as the
Kilmarnock Edition) in the summer of 1786. The success of this collection ignited his fame as a poet
and improved his finances.

The success of his first poetry collection meant Robert Burns could scrap his planned emigration to
Jamaica and instead take a short trip to Edinburgh to prepare the second edition and look for a
patron. He published the Edinburgh edition in 1787 and toured Scotland.

The publication of 'Auld Lang Syne'

In Edinburgh in October 1787, Robert Burns started to help edit James Johnson's collection of
traditional Scottish folk songs called The Scots Musical Museum (1787-1803). This six-volume
collection went on to feature around 160 of Robert Burns' songs, including his famous love poem 'A
Red, Red Rose' (1794). The fifth edition features Robert Burns' well-known song 'Auld Lang Syne'.

The original 'Auld Lang Syne'?

Robert Burns' 'Auld Lang Syne' was not an original creation, in the sense that it was Burns' version
of a traditional Scottish folk song with a long history, stretching far back through the Scottish folk
tradition. It's hard to know which was the first version. Earlier 17th and 18th-century versions of
'Auld Lang Syne' likely had some influence on Robert Burns' version.

Robert Burns' first letter containing 'Auld Lang Syne'

Scots language – meaning

Chorus and Refrain

'Auld lang syne', meaning 'old time's sake' though it literally translates as 'old long since'.
'tak', meaning 'take'.
'Sin', meaning 'since'.

Scots Language in Stanza Three

'ye'll be your pint-stowp' (line 9),meaning 'you will buy your pint cup/tankard'.
'I'll be mine' (line 10), meaning 'I will buy mine'.

Scots Language in Stanza Four

'We twa hae' (line 13),meaning 'We two have'.

'braes' (line 13), meaning 'hillsides'.
'pu'd the gowans' (line 14), meaning 'pulled the daisies'.
'mony' (line 15), meaning 'many'.

Scots Language in Stanza Five

'paidlet i' the burn' (line 17), meaning 'paddled in the stream/brook'.
'Frae' (line 18), meaning 'From'.
'dine' (line 18), meaning 'dinnertime'.

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 'braid hae roar'd' (line 19), meaning 'broad have roared'.

Scots Language in Stanza Six

'feire' (line 21), meaning 'friend'.
'gie's' (line 22), meaning 'give me' though it literally translates as 'give us'.
'a right gude-willie waught' (line 23) literally translates as 'a right good-will draft' which
means 'a proper good drink'!

Auld Lang Syne meaning, structure, and summary

'Auld Lang Syne' has six stanzas of four lines each. As the four lines of each stanza rhyme, each
stanza is called a quatrain. The second quatrain is a chorus meant to be repeated after each of the
other quatrains. The last line of each quatrain is called the refrain as it repeats all or part of the
poem's title. From now on in this article, the poem's stanzas will be referred to as quatrains. Let's
take a look at the meaning of each quatrain!

Quatrain – A rhymed four-line stanza.

Refrain – A line of a song or poem which is repeated at the end of multiple verses/stanzas.

Quatrain One – meaning

The speaker poses rhetorical questions to emphasise the importance of maintaining old
friendships: should we forget old friends and never think about them? Should we forget about old
friends and the good old times?

Quatrain Two (Chorus) – meaning

The speaker fondly addresses an old friend as 'my Dear' and raises a glass (of alcohol!) with his
friend to the good old days.

Quatrain Three – meaning

The speaker and his friend each buy their own alcoholic drinks (pints of beer) and raise a glass to
the good old days. Buying pints of beer suggests they are in a pub.

Quatrain Four – meaning

The speaker looks back on childhood memories of running along the hillsides and picking daisies
with his friend. The speaker then acknowledges how much time has passed since those days by
alluding to how far he and his friend have travelled since then.

Quatrain Five – meaning

The speaker looks back on more childhood memories of paddling in the stream all day with his
friend. The speaker then acknowledges how much he and his friend have grown apart since then by
alluding to how much physical distance has come between them.

Quatrain Six – meaning

The speaker puts his hand out to his friend and asks for a handshake before they have a proper good
drink to the good old days!

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Rhyme scheme

'Auld Lang Syne' themes of friendship, childhood, and memories

Using rhetorical questions and repetition of the phrase 'auld lang syne', Robert Burns' 'Auld Lang
Syne' calls on us to think back on the good memories we made with our oldest friends.

In the third quatrain, the friends have reunited at the pub and each of them buys a drink to raise a
glass to the good old days. After the speaker reminisces about happy memories of playing in nature
with his old friend and explains how they drifted apart over time, the friends' reunion in the sixth
quatrain and toast to the good old days is particularly impactful as they physically come together in
a handshake.

Neither the speaker nor his friend has forgotten their happy childhood memories and both want to
celebrate the good old days, showing how enduring their friendship is.

In quatrains four and five, the speaker reminisces about happy childhood memories of playing in
nature with his old friend. The speaker's most treasured memories of his childhood are innocent
memories of the simple life, when a day was best spent running through the Scottish hills picking
daisies and paddling in the stream with his old friend.

Auld Lang Syne language devices

Speaker
The speaker of the poem uses first-person speech to directly address his old friend, repeatedly using
'I'll', 'ye'll', 'we'll' and 'We twa' to emphasise the closeness between him and his old childhood friend
as they celebrate their reunion with a hearty drink at the pub.

Tone
The tone of the poem is celebratory and joyful as the speaker looks back fondly on old memories and
has a drink with his old friend down at the pub to celebrate the good old days!

Imagery
Drinking
In the chorus, the speaker and his old friend raise a glass (a 'cup o' kindness') to the
good old days. The chorus (quatrain two) of the poem is sung after each verse, so the
tradition of reuniting over a drink and wishing someone well by raising a toast is
repeatedly celebrated in this poem!
In the sixth quatrain, the speaker and his friend shake hands and have 'a right gude-
willie waught', meaning a proper good drink, to the good old days. Drinking together,
the friends are toasting to each other's health. The word 'right' emphasises how hearty
and meaningful this drink is!
Nature
In quatrains four and five, the speaker describes the simple life back in the good old
days of two boys running through the Scottish hills picking daisies, and spending all
day paddling in the stream. It is the joy of being out in nature playing freely which the
speaker fondly looks back on years later.

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Auld Lang Syne - Key takeaways
'Auld Lang Syne' is a poem written in the Scots language and it's meant to be set to music, so
we call it a song.
Scottish poet Robert Burns was born in 1759 in Alloway, Scotland, and died in 1796 in
Dumfries, Scotland.
Robert Burns first wrote 'Auld Lang Syne' in a letter in 1788, and it was first published in
1796.
Robert Burns' 'Auld Lang Syne' was not original in the sense that it was a version of a
traditional Scottish folk song with a long history.
Each stanza of 'Auld Lang Syne' has four lines which are rhymed, so each stanza is called a
quatrain.
The last line of each quatrain of 'Auld Lang Syne' is called the refrain because it repeats all or
part of the title.
Robert Burns' 'Auld Lang Syne' is still sung on New Year's Eve across the UK to welcome the
new year!
Key themes in Robert Burns' 'Auld Lang Syne' are friendship, childhood, and memories.
'Auld Lang Syne' uses repetition and rhetorical questions to emphasise its message that we
should not and cannot forget old friends and the good old days!
'Auld Lang Syne' has a celebratory and joyful tone as the speaker reunites with his old friend
down the pub for a hearty drink to the good old days!

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