Auld Lang Syne - Poems | Academy of American Poets Academy of American Poets The Academy of American Poets is the largest membership-based nonprofit organization fostering an appreciation for contemporary poetry and supporting American poets. For over three generations, the Academy has connected millions of people to great poetry through programs such as National Poetry Month, the largest literary celebration in the world; Poets.org, the Academy’s popular website; American Poets, a biannual literary journal; and an annual series of poetry readings and special events. Since its founding, the Academy has awarded more money to poets than any other organization. browse poems & poets sign up to receive a new poem-a-day in your inbox sign up Pirate Story by Robert Louis Stevenson Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson Loneliness by Trumbull Stickney poem About this poet Born in Alloway, Scotland, on January 25, 1759, Robert Burns was the first of William and Agnes Burnes' seven children. His father, a tenant farmer, educated his children at home. Burns also attended one year of mathematics schooling and, between 1765 and 1768, he attended an "adventure" school established by his father and John Murdock.

His father died in bankruptcy in 1784, and Burns and his brother Gilbert took over farm. This hard labor later contributed to the heart trouble that Burns' suffered as an adult. At the age of fifteen, he fell in love and shortly thereafter he wrote his first poem. As a young man, Burns pursued both love and poetry with uncommon zeal. In 1785, he fathered the first of his fourteen children. His biographer, DeLancey Ferguson, had said, "it was not so much that he was conspicuously sinful as that he sinned conspicuously." Between 1784 and 1785, Burns also wrote many of the poems collected in his first book, Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, which was printed in 1786 and paid for by subscriptions. This collection was an immediate success and Burns was celebrated throughout England and Scotland as a great "peasant-poet." In 1788, he and his wife, Jean Armour, settled in Ellisland, where Burns was given a commission as an excise officer. He also began to assist James Johnson in collecting folk songs for an anthology entitled The Scots Musical Museum.

Burns' spent the final twelve years of his life editing and imitating traditional folk songs for this volume and for Select Collection of Original Scottish Airs. These volumes were essential in preserving parts of Scotland's cultural heritage and include such well-known songs as "My Luve is Like a Red Red Rose" and "Auld Land Syne." Robert Burns died from heart disease at the age of thirty-seven. On the day of his death, Jean Armour gave birth to his last son, Maxwell. Most of Burns' poems were written in Scots. They document and celebrate traditional Scottish culture, expressions of farm life, and class and religious distinctions. Burns wrote in a variety of forms: epistles to friends, ballads, and songs. His best-known poem is the mock-heroic Tam o' Shanter. He is also well known for the over three hundred songs he wrote which celebrate love, friendship, work, and drink with often hilarious and tender sympathy. Burns died on July 21, 1796, at the age of 37. Even today, he is often referred to as the National Bard of Scotland.

Selected Bibliography Auld Lang Syne - Editing Robert Burns for the 21st Century Editing Robert Burns for the 21st Century Video Archive Auld Lang Syne In preparation for Hogmanay, the Editing Robert Burns for the 21st Century team looks at one of the most famous songs in the world: ‘Auld Lang Syne’. A global anthem generally considered as a plea to remember long-standing friendships, versions of it have been performed by artists as diverse as Jimi Hendrix, Elvis Presley and Rod Stewart. However, the song with which we are all familiar today has an equally diverse and complex past. ‘Auld lang syne’ is often referred to as the song that everybody sings but nobody knows. Although it is globally recognised, it is frequently sung with slight variations from Burns’s original lyrics, most commonly the line ‘For the days of auld lang syne’, instead of the simpler ‘For auld lang syne’. However, there are six manuscript copies in existence of the song, all with textual differences. Three of those manuscripts are in the United States while three are held here in Scotland.

You can view a fragment of ‘Auld lang syne’ in Burns’s hand from 1793 at the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum at Alloway. Early History The genesis of the phrase ‘Auld lang syne’ has been traced back as far as the sixteenth century. It appeared in an anonymous ballad, ‘Auld Kyndnes Foryett’, contained in the 1568 Bannatyne Manuscript (a compilation of Scottish literary materials collected by the Edinburgh merchant George Bannatyne).

Rather than Burns’s more optimistic call to remember old friendships, this ballad laments the fickleness of those who would feign it for financial gain: They wald me hals with hude and hatt, [salute me with hood and hat] Quhyle I wes rich and had anewch, [had plenty] About me friends anew I gatt, [got] Rycht blythie on me they lewch; [very happily on me they leech] But now they mak it wonder tewch, [make it very tough] And lattis me stand befoir the yett; [let me stand outwith the door] Thairfoir this warld is verry frewch, [frught] And auld kyndnes is quyt foryett. [kindness is quite forgotten] Possible influences on Burns Another ballad version, thought to have been written by the Scots Court Poet Robert Ayton (1570-1638) was published for the first time in 1711 in James Watson’s Choice Collection of Scots Poems.

This song contained opening lines very similar to those that would appear in Burns’s adaptation: Watson’s Choice Collection of Comic and Serious Scots Poems Should auld Acquaintance be forgot, And never thought upon, The Flames of Love extinguished, And freely past and gone? Is thy kind Heart now grown so cold In that Loving Breast of thine, That thou canst never once reflect On Old-long-syne? Also in the early eighteenth century, the Scots poet Allan Ramsay wrote a song to the old tune, which was published in Scots Songs (1720). Ramsay opens with the familiar refrain, ‘Should auld acquaintance be forgot’, but the rest of his song is quite different from that of Burns. Ramsay was also aware of the Bannatyne Manuscript, indeed he is the last person to have added to it, so he would have known of the ‘Auld Kyndnes Foryett’ ballad. The song and the tune (No. 25) were published in the first volume of Johnson’s Scots Musical Museum in 1787.

Portrait of Allan Ramsay Allan Ramsay’s version of ‘Auld lang syne’, in Scots Songs (1720) Ramsay’s choice of title was a phrase which resonated with Jacobite and anti-Union sentiment, both in the late seventeenth, and the early eighteenth centuries, and it was a phrase which clearly struck a chord with Burns. However Burns expanded out the narrower Jacobite meanings, most notably his allusion to drinking in the line ‘We’ll tak a cup o’kindness yet’. Here the Jacobite notion of imbibing to prove one’s loyalty to the cause has been transformed into a more general feeling of good-will and generosity. Burns and ‘Auld lang syne’ ‘Auld lang syne’ as it appears in The Scots Musical Museum The first mention that Burns makes of the song appears in a letter sent to Mrs Dunlop on the 7th December 1788, where he asks her, ‘is not the Scotch phrase ‘Auld lang syne’ exceedingly expressive?’ As an avid collector of traditional Scots music and song, Burns noted that both the old song and the tune ‘thrilled thro’ my soul’.

Clearly he was very taken with the lyrical quality of the verse for he wrote beside the song: ‘Light be the turf on the breast of the heaven-inspired Poet who composed this glorious Fragment! There is more of the fire of native genius in it, than in half a dozen of modern English Bacchanalians’. His version of the song appeared in Vol. 5 of the Scots Musical Museum (1796), and was accompanied by a tune which appeared in Playford’s Original Scotch Tunes (1700) under the title of ‘For old long Sine my jo’. This version of the tune was used frequently throughout the eighteenth century including the 1725 publication of the Orpheus Caledonius. Burns conceded to Johnson that only three stanzas of the song he sent to him were old, with the other two being composed by himself.

Play or download the tune which appeared with Burns’s text in the Scots Musical Museum: Your browser does not support the HTML5 Audio Tag Download song: Burns’s ‘Auld lang syne’ and George Thomson ‘Auld lang syne’ in Thomson’s Select Collection of Original Scottish Airs (1799) While Burns was sending material on ‘Auld lang syne’ to James Johnson he was also corresponding with the Scottish editor George Thomson to whom he sent the third known manuscript of the song. There were some alterations from the previous version, most notably the inclusion of ‘my dear’ at the expense of ‘my jo’. In his letter to Thomson, Burns expressed his opinion that, ‘The air is but mediocre; but the following song – the old Song of the olden times, & which has never been in print, nor even in manuscript, untill [sic] I took it down from an old man’s singin; is enough to recommend any air’.

Later, Thomson found out from Stephen Clarke that Johnson had a copy of the song and that the air was already in The Scots Musical Museum (Allan Ramsay’s version).Burns reiterated to Thomson his distaste for the older air in 1794 writing, ‘The two songs you saw in Clarke’s are, neither of them, worth your attention. The words of, Auld lang syne, are good; but the music is an old air, the rudiments of the modern tune of that name. The other tune, you may hear as a common Scots country dance’. This ‘other tune’ is probably the one with which most people are familiar today, and was the tune which Thomson published in his A Select Collection of Original Scottish Airs (1799). He even claimed that the text was ‘From an old MS. in the editor’s possession’, and curiously did not include Burns’s name with the song. The tune which Thomson chose, first appeared in Bremner’s Scots Reels (1759) entitled ‘The Miller’s Wedding’. Some earlier Burns editors thought that Thomson got the tune from the opera Rosina (1783) by William Shield.

They believed that Shield had sourced it from a fiddle collection, as in 1780 it also appeared in Cumming’s Strathspeys, as well as McGlashan’s Strathspey Reels, although on this occasion it went by the title of ‘The Miller’s Daughter’. This arrangement was even used twice to different songs in Johnson’s Scots Musical Museum. The famous fiddler Niel Gow also included it in a collection he dedicated to Sir Alexander Don, and often the melody is known by that name. The tune is very similar to another for which Burns had written his lyric beginning ‘O can ye labour lea, young man’. Set to a tune with the same name, Burns’s song had appeared in the Scots Musical Museum in 1792 as no. 394. While the tune is more spirited here, it is nonetheless clearly a variant of Thomson’s tune for ‘Auld lang syne’. ‘Auld lang syne’ as it appears in Thomson’s Select Collection touches on two of the key elements of Thomson’s editorial practice. The first is to do with the musical setting.

At this point in his project Thomson was principally working with the Bohemian composer Leopold Koželuch (1747-1818). Through the agency of the British Legation in Vienna, Koželuch was receiving packages of tunes from Thomson (usually without texts) for him to then provide settings or arrangements of the tunes or melodies for voice and piano accompaniment, but also with parts for violin and cello. The tune for ‘Auld lang syne’ in the Select Collection The composers were asked to provide little instrumental symphonies to introduce the song and to act as a conclusion and they harmonized the melody of the song proper in between. They would send their final versions back to Thomson in Edinburgh, and he would then underlay the text to the music provided. One of Thomson’s key issues with his composers in Vienna was that they often provided accompaniments which were too difficult for Edinburgh ladies and gentlemen to play. Thomson’s volumes, like Johnson’s, were intended mainly for home or domestic performance.

Koželuch’s first attempt at setting the melody for ‘Auld Lang Syne’ was too full of semi-quavers (running or fast notes) to be playable and Thomson had asked him to simplify this. The setting that you can see here was Koželuch’s second attempt – the bass line has simple octaves here, rather than fast and continual semiquavers. On the copy here you can see that Thomson has noted that this is ‘simplified as above by Mr. K’ in 1801. Secondly, and more controversially here, is Thomson’s choice of tune. It was frequently the case in collections of national airs that editors would match texts to tunes as they saw fit, rather than adhering to the original tunes which their lyricists or poets had chosen. Thomson is much criticised in Burns scholarship for changing his mind about tunes, especially as so many of Burns’s songs were published posthumously by Thomson. Sometimes, as in the case with Burns’s ‘Scots wha hae’, Thomson would later admit he was wrong and would revert to Burns’s original choice of tune. But in the case of ‘Auld lang syne’ this was not what happened.

Later on Thomson also printed a Beethoven setting of ‘Auld Lang Syne’ (‘Die alte gute Zeit’) for three voices and piano trio. It appeared only once in his collections, in the last of his six folio volumes of Melodies of Scotland in 1841. Our new edition of the song for Thomson will investigate this musical story in much more detail and we’ll keep you informed of our findings. But what we do know is that the tune now commonly called ‘Sir Alexander Don’s Strathspey’ has become the tune most commonly paired with Burns’s lyric. The old tune known as ‘Auld lang syne’ which appears in the Museum is now becoming better known and is preferred by some, but, in this case, Thomson’s choice of melody stuck and is now sung all around the world. Play or download the tune used by Thomson: Your browser does not support the HTML5 Audio Tag Download song: Auld Lang Syne (Thomson) (789) ‘Auld lang syne’ and the world Not only is the song sung all around the world but it has inspired a number of translations into foreign languages.

Pia Osberg, an exchange student from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, studying at Glasgow drew our attention to the literary links between Burns and the Danish poet Jeppe Aakjær (1866-1930), who wrote his own version of ‘Auld lang syne’ in 1927. Pia writes: The Danish version of ‘Auld lang syne’ is called ‘Skuld gammel venskab rejn forgo’ which translates as ‘should old friendships just be forgotten’. However, ‘Skuld gammel venskab rejn forgo’ is not written in Standard Danish but in a Danish dialect called Sallingbomål. (Salling was the name of the village near Skive where Aakjær lived most of his life.) Both Burns and Aakjær came from farming communities and they took great pride in writing in their native dialects. Burns wrote in the Scots dialect of Ayrshire and Aakjær in Sallingbomål. It is funny when you think of Scots being a dialect that some people in the UK find difficult to understand, because some Danes definitely find Sallingbomål challenging to understand too!

Aakjær kept the theme of the original poem. The theme of looking back on old days gone by and about making a toast to old friendships. Not only is Aakjær’s translation of ‘Auld lang syne’ extremely close to the original, he has also managed to get the actual sounds of the words quite similar to Burns’: Auld Lang Syne Skuld gammel venskab rejn forgo Skuld gammel venskab rejn forgo og stryges fræ wor mind? Skuld gammel venskab rejn forgo med dem daw så læng, læng sind? Di skjønne ungdomsdaw, å ja, de daw så svær å find! Vi’el løwt wor kop så glådle op for dem daw så læng, læng sind! ‘Skuld gammel venskab rejn forgo’ is not sung as part of our New Year’s celebration in Denmark as it is the custom here in the UK.

Instead, it is sung at family gatherings, such as graduation parties, weddings or round-figured birthdays where everyone, at the end of the party, join in to sing the song as a lovely way to say goodbye before the party breaks up and people part. All guests stand in a circle, and if you are in great numbers, you’ll make two circles; one within the other. Come the last verse, you cross your arms and hold hands with the ones standing next to you. This family tradition is only a custom in Jutland. (Thanks Pia!) As well as Danish, and the Danish dialect of Sallingbomål, ‘Auld lang syne’ has been translated into a multitude of languages across the planet, demonstrating the truly worldwide appeal of the song. In 2009 the Global Burns Network saw singing events in a range of languages, from as diverse as Arabic, to Czech, to Esperanto, to Maori, to Russian, to Swahili to Urdu, and to Vietnamese. And on St Andrews night of the same year a world record was set in Glasgow when the song was sung simultaneously in over forty languages to mark the end of Homecoming Scotland.

To see a recording of this event click below: For more versions of the song you can visit the BBC website , produced in conjunction with the University of Glasgow, which provides audio recordings and introductions to all of the Bard’s works. Ralph McLean Auld Lang Syne: should old lyrics be forgot... what the song means, and eight things you didn't know about it Auld Lang Syne: should old lyrics be forgot... what the song means, and eight things you didn't know about it Watch | Everything you need to know about New Year 01:48 Alice Vincent 31 December 2016 • 4:04pm Every year, on December 31, merrily inebriated people gather to sing the same song, Auld Lang Syne. The fact that few actually know all of the words, let alone their meaning, has rarely stopped anyone from joining in. However, now is your chance to be well informed and in tune with these facts about the song: 1. Robert Burns didn't invent Auld Lang Syne as we know it The Scottish Bard wrote many wonderful pieces of original verse, but this was not among them.

Instead, he was the first person to write down a much older Scottish folk song. In 1788 he sent a copy of the song to his friend, Mrs Agnes Dunlop, exclaiming: "There is more of the fire of native genius in it than in half a dozen of modern English Bacchanalians!" Five years later he sent it to James Johnson, who was compiling a book of old Scottish songs, The Scottish Musical Museum, with an explanation: "The following song, an old song, of the olden times, and which has never been in print, nor even in manuscript until I took it down from an old man." By the time Johnson published it, most likely attributing the verse to the globally known tune, Burns had been dead for a few months. 2. It has global significance... And not just for five minutes per year. The tune was used by the Maldives and Korea for their national anthems, while Japanese department stores play it as a polite reminder for customers to leave at closing time. 3.

...and meaning beyond New Year's Eve Aside from Cliff Richard's dubious merging of the Lord's Prayer with the tune for Millennium Prayer, a festive chart-topper best left forgotten, Auld Lang Syne's championing of passing time and goodwill means it is often chosen to mark funerals (like that of Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau), graduations and, in It's A Wonderful Life, at Christmas. Strange New Year traditions around the world 4. The song sung the world over isn't the original tune Musicologists and folklorists have been debating this one for years. Although it's thought that the tune Burns originally heard is probably now forgotten, the poet did write another song with a very similar melody, called O Can Ye Labour Lea, Young Man. There is another, reportedly more traditional tune, that Auld Lang Syne is set to. If sources are to be believed, it's the version featured in the Sex and the City film in 2008 and a more haunting, nostalgic and beautiful version of the jaunty singalong everybody is used to. Traditional Scottish folk singers still perform this version, and who can blame them - it's far more refined. 5.

It's soundtracked some of the most memorable film scenes ever In 1972's The Poseidon Adventure, the playing of Auld Lang's Syne was a harbinger of doom: it was during the luxury ship SS Poseidon's December 31 celebrations that a tidal wave capsized the boat. As she begins to sink, you can hear the recognisable tune ringing out. Seventeen years later, the song played as one of cinema's best-known couples got together. While many have heard of the famous "I'll have what she's having!" scene in When Harry Met Sally, the film's charming climax is set against a cocktail-dressed crowd singing along to Auld Lang's Syne. After Harry and Sally finally declare their love, Harry ponders the meaning of Auld Lang Syne, and they both decide that... 6. ...It's basically a call to remember old friends as time marches on We might be concentrating on New Year's Resolutions and finding somebody nearby for a celebratory kiss at midnight, but Auld Lang Syne is a reminder to remember and cherish old friendships, good deeds and toast health and good will for the year ahead.

That toast, of course, is better when accompanied by a glass/bottle of champagne. 7. "For Auld Lang Syne" means "for the sake of old times" That's a rough translation. More literally, Auld Lang Syne means "old long since" or "long long time". Burns didn't invent this particular phrase, however. An anonymous lyric, Auld Kindnes Foryett, has been dated back to the 15th century. Then Auld Lang Syne was used by Burns's poetic predecessors Robert Ayton in the late 16th century, Allan Ramsay in the 17th and James Watson around the same time. More recently, contemporary Scottish poet Matthew Fitt used the phrase as a replacement for "once upon a time". All of which means... 8. You shouldn't sing "for the sake of" Granted, you probably won't care by this point in the evening, and it will certainly mark you out as a party pooper if you do correct your fellow revellers, but: the final line of the chorus isn't "For the sake of Auld Lang Syne".

It's just "For auld lang syne." This is because, as mentioned above, Auld Lang Syne already means "for the sake of old times." But it does fit pleasingly with the tune. 9. And if you still don't know the lyrics: Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And never brought to mind? Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And auld lang syne! Great Britons: Robert Burns - The Scottish Poet Who Romanticized a Nation and Wrote Auld Lang Syne - Anglotopia.net Issue #4 Now Shipping! We received Issue #4 from the printer last week and have begun the process of shipping out. There’s almost 900 to send, so it will take a about 7-10 days to ship them all out. It will be with you soon! Related Issue #4 is Almost Done! We’re almost done with Issue #4 which is taking a bit longer than we planned to get ready. It’s with our copy editor now and we’ll be sending it to the printer this week. We expect to begin shipping out in 2-3 weeks. Related The London Annual Has Gone to Press!

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You will received an email from us, be sure to check your SPAM folder if you haven’t received it today. Email us right away and we’ll send you a different link to […] Issue #3 Has Been Printed and We’ll Begin Shipping Them We have just picked up Issue #3 of the Anglotopia Magazine from the printer. It looks beautiful! We’ll begin shipping them out tomorrow. It’s going to take us about a week to get them all out. We have about 600 subscribers and pre-orders to get through. Last time we used a third party shipping company […] Pre-order Issue #3 Now To make sure that you can get a copy of the next issue of the Anglotopia magazine, we recommend pre-ordering. We’re only getting 900 copies and 600 or so have already been reserved. We will likely sell out again. Click here to preorder. Related By Jonathan Leave a Comment Robert Burns was a Scottish poet most remembered for writing “Auld Lang Syne”, but who wrote many poems and songs loved by Scots around the world. In his 37 years he loved and lost on numerous occasions, always accompanied by a poem or three, and he advocated freedom and liberty in politics and life.

Key Facts about Robert Burns Born 1759, died 1796 The greatest Scottish poet ever born Most famous for Auld Land Syne Voted the Greatest Scot of all time, narrowly beating William Wallace A Short Biography of Robert Burns William Burns was a second-generation private gardener to the rich when his first son, Robert, was born on the 25th of January, 1759, into the small cottage he had built on some land he owned in Alloway, a few miles south of the town of Ayr, on the Scottish west-coast. His wife, Agnes Broun, was a farmer’s daughter and 11 years younger than William. Robert was followed by six more children over the next 12 years. The cottage became too small before that time and William had ambitions to become a farmer, so in 1765 he leased Mount Oliphant, a farm two miles away. Robert was seven at the time and was already being educated at home by his father, who had educated himself in the three R’s and passed that on to his children, as well as the Christian virtues in a small book he wrote for them.

He also learnt Latin and French at a local school developed as part of the growing Scottish education-system. Robert’s father was probably a Jacobite, a supporter of the restoration of the Stuart kings to the throne of England and Scotland and his Scottish nationalism rubbed-off on young Robbie. William’s farming at Mount Oliphant was not successful, so in 1777 the family moved to a larger farm at Lochlea, near Tarbolton, where William lived with Agnes until his death. As for Robert, he already showed a taste both for writing and women, taking up dancing and writing four songs in a failed attempt to woo a wife. He also joined the local Masonic Lodge, which had strong Jacobite leanings. When he was 22 he moved to the nearby town of Irvine, to become a flax-dresser. Flax was used in weaving to make linen and tapestries. While there he met a sea-captain called Richard Brown, who Burns always credited with encouraging him to become a poet. Sadly, his shop caught fire during New Year’s celebrations and Robert had to return home to Lochlea.

After his father’s death in 1784 Robert and his brother Gilbert tried to keep the farm going, but failed and moved again to another nearby town called Mauchline where he met and began to court Jean Amour. During that time he also got his mother’s servant girl pregnant and she bore his first child, Elizabeth, in 1785. Not deterred, Jean also became pregnant and was sent away in disgrace by her parent’s to an uncle for the confinement. Like so many in Scotland, Burns was unable to earn enough to keep his growing family, so around 1785 he decided to take a position as a bookkeeper on a sugar plantation in Jamaica. Unfortunately he didn’t have the money to get there, so he published two collections of his work – Scotch Poems, and Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish dialect, usually called the Kilmarnock Volume, to raise it. Some of the poems were written for another girlfriend, Mary Campbell, who he may have been planning to take to Jamaica with him. However Mary died of typhus in 1786.

His poems proved popular and he went to Edinburgh, where he was fêted by the top literary circles as a new and fresh voice. He made a favourable impression and his poems were published in a new edition in Edinburgh, for which he received the enormous sum of £400. While in Edinburgh he became involved in a protracted and complex relationship with Agnes “Nancy” McLehose, who was separated from her husband. When no physical side developed from it, he had an affair with her servant girl, who became pregnant, and with an another servant girl as well. His courtship of these various women was always accompanied by splendid love-poems. He never did get to Jamaica. As well as a poet Burns was a collector of traditional songs and contributed a large number to several volumes of The Scots Musical Museum, which was completed only after his death. Others occur in his collection, The Merry Muses of Caledonia. Often expressed indirectly in his work, Burns continued to hold Jacobite and revolutionary principles. In 1788 he finally married Jean and they moved to Dumfries, first farming and then working as a tax collector. He continued to write and had more songs and poems published in newspapers and collections.

However his excesses and drinking-habit, couple with rejection by friends for his revolutionary views, combined with a rheumatic heart condition to cause rapid aging in Burns. Following a tooth extraction he died on the 21st of July, 1796, aged just 37, at home in Dumfries. Jean eventually managed to secure the future of his 12 children with the publication of a four-volume collection of his poems and an official biography. His Legacy Robbie Burns, or The Bard, as he is often known to Scots, is regarded as the national poet of Scotland. His works unite expatriate Scots around the world and at least one, Auld Lang Syne, is known to everyone. He is considered an early Romantic, and admired by socialists and liberals for such poems of equality and freedom as A Man’s a Man for A’ That and Scots Wha Hae. Lines like O my Luve’s like a red, red rose / That’s newly sprung in June, or The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men / Gang aft agley are instantly recognized by all. There are Burns Clubs globally fostering his work and bringing together lovers of his poetry and songs.

His birthday, Burns Day, is widely celebrated around the work as an unofficial Scottish National Day. He also enjoyed special popularity in Imperial, Communist and modern Russia. Sites to Visit Burns’ house in Dumfries where he died can be visited and is a small museum. His Mausoleum is in St. Michael’s churchyard in Dumfries, and there is a Robert Burns Centre in the town as well. There is also a statue in Dumfries town centre. The house he was born in to, Burns Cottage is now at the centre of a theme-park, the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum, in Alloway. One wonders what he would make of it. There is a replica of Burns Cottage in Atlanta, Georgia . Further Research Latest British News in Your Inbox Our Upcoming Trips At Anglotopia we're always planning our next trip.

Here's a taste of what we have planned: We're planning a trip to London in late February 2017 We're planning a monthlong trip to Dorset and the Southwest of England for Christmas 2017 Jonathan plans to walk the length of Hadrian's Wall when he can lose 25lbs and walk 10 miles in a day Read about his Training Here The 2017 London Annual Guide Contact Us! Interested in advertising on the world's largest website dedicated to all things Britain? Or maybe you have a story for us or would like to work together. We want to hear from you! Reach Us At: E-mail: info@anglotopia.net As Seen On or In: The Poet Behind "Auld Lang Syne" | The Huffington Post The Poet Behind "Auld Lang Syne" 01/28/2009 05:12 am ET | Updated May 25, 2011 John Lundberg Writer, Poetry teacher When you raise your glass this week to celebrate the New Year, you'll probably be reciting a poem by the great Scottish poet Robert Burns.

Burns wrote (or, some argue, collected) "Auld Lang Syne" in 1788, and it was soon after set to the tune we know today. Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And never brought to mind? Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And days o' lang syne? That last line that everyone mumbles into his champagne translates roughly to "And days gone by." This January, there will be another reason to remember Burns. January 25, or "Burns Day" as the Brits are calling it, marks the poet's 250th birthday. The coming celebration has put Burns in the spotlight of the British press, and it hasn't been that kind to him. In particular, they've caught on to two unflattering letters that Burns wrote and which an entrepreneurial Scotsman is now selling. The letters contain some previously undiscovered poems, like this one: I lately made a journey to Glasgow O had I stayed and said my prayers at hame Curst be that night as annual it returns That led astray the luckless poet B May thickening fogs by sickly east winds driven Foul cover Earth and blot the face of Heaven. The poems seem rather unremarkable.

But the letters are remarkable for their vulgarity. In them, Burns reportedly, among other things, refers to his children as "bastards" and laments not being able to ride his horse due to the flare up of an STD. Such talk, apparently, isn't out of character for Burns. Peter Westwood, director of The Robert Burns World Federation, told the British newspaper the Guardian, "Burns's letters to Ainslie were quite often very rude and not for public view." Westwood is irked by the seller's timing. The letters have become enough of a story that Burns biographer Patrick Scott Hogg felt obligated to defend him in this December 16 letter published on Scotsman.com "Our national bard did not father 13 children.... Factually, we know only of 12 children. Nine of these were to his wife, Jean. Burns wanted to settle down with Elizabeth Paton, who bore his first child, but his family prevented him from doing so. He also set up what is termed an "irregular" but legal marriage with Jean Armour in early 1786, which her stern Calvinist father destroyed, making the marriage null.

Subsequently, Burns had a child to Jenny Clow in Edinburgh. The only affair during his marriage that led to another birth was the affair with Anna Park, of the Globe Inn, Dumfries." Yes, that was the guy defending Burns. Burns also keeps a presence in our culture through J.D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye, which references his poem "Coming Thro' the Rye," from which Salinger hatched his title. The poem describes a woman, Jenny, who "meets" (if you know what I mean) a man in a rye field: Coming thro' the rye, poor body, Coming thro' the rye, She draiglet a' her petticoatie Coming thro' the rye. O, Jenny's a' wat, poor body; Jenny's seldom dry; She draiglet a' her petticoatie Coming thro' the rye. Gin a body meet a body Coming thro' the rye, Gin a body kiss a body - Need a body cry? Gin a body meet a body Coming thro' the glen, Gin a body kiss a body - Need the warld ken?

The poem succeeds at being beautiful and a little vulgar at once. Until the stories die down, the Scottish bard will have to do so as well. More: Auld Lang Syne | New Years Eve | Guy Lombardo Search the Site Auld Lang Syne Scottish poet Robert Burns wrote Auld Lang Syne, the traditional song of midnight on New Year's Eve. As one year ends and another begins hundreds of thousands of people will be singing this song as they raise their glasses toasting in the New Year. Not everyone really knows the words and there are many variations sung at midnight, some actually humorous and not at all reflective of the mood Burns was trying to create. Some things to remember. The song was first written in the 1700's. Robert Burns was Scottish. Put these two facts together and you will better understand why the words sound so "foreign". "Auld" for example means "old" but more in a "gone-by" way. The expression "Auld Lang Syne" is actually said to mean "Times Gone By". Now when you sing "We'll take a cup of kindness yet for Auld Lang Syne" it means a little more.

Auld Lang Syne became a New Year's Eve standard in 1929 when Ontario born Guy Lombardo, the son of Scottish immigrant parents and his band, the Lombardo Brothers sang it at a New Year's Eve party in New York City. It has been a staple ever since. Lyrics in the original Scottish are very difficult to translate perfectly, so there are many adaptations. What most of us sing is actually a combination of the original and the translation. This one seems to be accepted by many: Original Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And never brought to mind? Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And auld lang syne! 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'1l be your pint stowp! And surely I'll be mine! And we'll tak a cup o' kindness yet, For auld lang syne. 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.

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. 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. Should old acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind? Should old acquaintance be forgot for the sake of Times Gone By? Chorus For old Times Gone By, my dear For Times Gone By We will take a cup of kindness yet, For Times Gone By We two have run about the hillsides, And pulled the daisies fine, But we have wandered many a weary foot, For Times Gone By We two have paddled in the stream, From noon until dinner time, But seas between us broad have roared, Since Times Gone By And there is a hand, my trusty friend, And give us a hand of yours, And we will take a goodwill drink, For Times Gone By. And surely you will pay for your pint, And surely I will pay for mine And we will take a cup of kindness yet, For Times Gone By.

Happy Robert Burns Day! (Scottish Celebration) - YouTube Happy Robert Burns Day! (Scottish Celebration) Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. The interactive transcript could not be loaded. Loading... Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Published on Jan 25, 2015 Robert Burns (Or Rabbie Burns) was a famous Scottish Poet and Lyricist who wrote the famous 'Auld Lang Syne' we sing at New Year. Today 25th January we celebrate his birthday! In this vlog I tell you a little bit about him and about Rabbie Burns Day! Don't forget to follow me on: Instagram - MoscoMoon

Question: What Scottish poet wrote "Auld Lang Syne"?
Answer: Robert Burns