'Auld Lang Syne' Song Lyrics, Meaning And Everything You Need To Know

About The Popular New Year's Eve Song

Among the many traditions that come with ringing in the new year, the singing of “Auld Lange Syne”
has become a staple of every gathering.
While “Auld Lange Syne” was originally a Scots poem written by Robert Burns in 1788, it was
eventually set to the tune of a traditional folk song. The title of the Scottish tune translates to "times
gone by" and is about remembering friends from the past and not letting them be forgotten.
Now, at the conclusion of almost every New Year's celebration, partygoers join hands with the person
next to them to form a great circle around the dance floor. At the beginning of the last verse, everyone
crosses their arms across their breast, so that the right hand reaches out to the neighbor on the left
and vice versa.
When the tune ends, everyone rushes to the middle, while still holding hands. When the circle is re-
established, everyone turns under the arms to end up facing outward with hands still joined.
Over the years, “Auld Lang Syne” has taken on a life of its own as musicians put their own spin on the
traditional New Year's jaunt.
As the jam band Phish returns to Madison Square Garden in New York City for a four-show New
Year's Eve run to close out 2012, the band will continue to play their rendition of “Auld Lang Syne” as
they have done since 1989.
As Phish rings in the New Year, the tune is often accompanied by thrillingly bizarre acts that tend to
change every year. Perhaps one of their most notable renditions of the song came during a 1995 New
Year's run, when the band acted out their roles as curators of the Gamehendge Time Factory, a
machine without which the world would remain frozen in time. At midnight, the Frankenstein-like
machinery on stage was activated.
As well as celebrating the New Year, “Auld Lang Syne” is very widely used to symbolize other
"endings/new beginnings" – including farewells, funerals, graduations, the end of a part, the election
of a new government and even the closing of a retail store.
The melody is also widely used for other words, especially the songs of sporting and other clubs, and
even national anthems.
Here are the lyrics to "Auld Lang Syne."

Should old acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind?

Should old acquaintance be forgot, and old lang syne?
For auld lang syne, my dear, for auld lang syne,
we'll take a cup of kindness yet, for auld lang syne.
And surely you'll buy your pint cup! and surely I'll buy mine!
And we'll take a cup o' kindness yet, for auld lang syne.
We two have run about the slopes, and picked the daisies fine;
But we've wandered many a weary foot, since auld lang syne.
We two have paddled in the stream, from morning sun till dine;
But seas between us broad have roared since auld lang syne.
And there's a hand my trusty friend! And give us a hand o' thine!
And we'll take a right good-will draught, for auld lang syne.

"I Think Continuously of Those Who Were Truly Great."

One interesting angle for an essay about this poem is the way that the inspiration and contributions of great thinkers
are described. Spender uses natural (physical) as well as spiritual imagery to convey these ideas. This suggests that
inspiration and the lasting impact of all thinkers is both material and abstract (metaphysical or even spiritual). The
exact philosophy or spirituality of that abstract component is not described in particular or ascribed to a certain
ideology or religion. This makes it general, universal, and accessible to many rather than a select group.
In the first stanza, the speaker describes the soul's history emerging from the light and song of the sun. Here, the sun
is also described in terms of time (which could indicate the measurement of days by the sunrise). The sun as a source
of life is also indicated as that which gives rise to the blossom of the branches and the blossom of desire. Here, a
physical urge to grow (blossom of branches) is compared to a spiritual or humanistic urge (desire to tell the soul's
history: something profound). And the sun is the light and song (source) of this desire/urge to blossom/tell:
Whose lovely ambition
Was that their lips, still touched with fire,
Should tell of the Spirit still clothed from head to foot in song.
In the second stanza, the speaker continues with natural imagery to describe the history of the soul, or the history of
human culture. There is a history of great thinkers/thoughts from which inspiration and ideas can be drawn - as water
is drawn from "ageless springs." The idea is that there will always be water coming up from the ground and, in
human culture and history, there will always be a history of (sometimes embedded) great ideas waiting to be
observed or dug out.
In the last stanza, the impact of the great thinkers is not described in terms of books, words, or even personal
histories. It is described abstractly, with the imagery of nature and a hint of spirituality using the light and energy of
the sun as a conduit. The "vivid air is signed with their honor." The great ideas of history are a part of the world in
culture and books but also as part of a humanity's soul/history; so the speaker describes these ideas as imprints on the
air, which implies a physical (talking about these ideas, passing them on) imprint and a vague spiritual one (ideas
imprinting the air).
Summary
- the speaker pays a posthumous tribute to great men
- great men: supposedly ancient historians, artists, or poets; ambitious, zealous, and passionate
- captured the aspects of history and so made it live forever ("What is precious is never to forget")
- conclusion: the great men were "born of the sun", "travelled […] towards the sun", and marked the air with the greatness

Analysis
- free verse, unrhymed
- the great men are fittingly connected with images of sun and light
- the great men and their achievements are associated with lively natural images, as opposed to the lifeless and deadening city images;
and finally identified with the loftiest manifestations of nature (sun, clouds, wind, sky, etc.)
- a celebration of the great men specifically, the spiritual aspect of human beings generally
- a celebration of the nature as preferred to the city