Ken wrote:

Consider this a one man campaign, and it may be an unusual posting to this group, but most people are going to sing Auld Lang Syne somewhere along the line in the next few weeks... If we're gonna sing it we might as well try to get it right.

Whether it's the millennium or not this New Year, (and I know it isn't before I get jumped on), the vast majority are going to have a crack at it and fail.

They can have all the fancy anthems they like, sung by all the celebrities under the sun, but it's still the only song in the world that can bring everyone together for a short while.
I like it, I'm gonna sing it and I don't have a problem with that.  I hope the rest of you don't either.

And if we're going to put the song on a web site, and make comments on it, and preach about it, then I think we should get all that right too. It's not as if it was difficult to find reliable sources of information on its words and origin.

Indeed I had a feeling straight off, from the tone of Ken's post, that something was wrong. There was more than a hint of overdone praise for the poem. This can be confirmed by a visit to the site which is full of unconscious hyperbole. Auld Lang Syne is billed as "The World Anthem of Peace and Friendship" and is claimed to be "The most famous unknown song in the world".

But there is worse than that: the version given of the song, which is claimed to be the authentic one, is incomplete; three of the middle stanzas are omitted. In fact the whole presentation is very short on facts. The only attempt to give solid information about the song is misleading, when it is asserted that "... the Scottish poet Burns wrote it ..."

This sort of thing is certain to irritate those of us who love Robert Burns. Not only is it a stupid to mangle Burn's work by leaving out more than half the words, but this nonsense is compounded by worrying more about social niceties ("the timing of when to join hands or cross arms") than about quoting the poem and its meaning correctly. Robbie Burns was a robust man when it came to the practice of social niceties. He would have right guide-willie-waught on new year's eve and left the social conventions to look after themselves. So let me try to put the matter to rights.

Burns wrote to Mrs. Dunlop, on 7th December 1788, as follows, concerning Auld Lang Syne : "Light be the turf on the breast of the heaven-inspired poet who composed this glorious fragment". Later (in 1793), in a note to George Thompson, he described it as "the 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's singing". There is much dispute as to how much Burns may have reworked this traditional ballad, though the tune has been known in print since 1700.

"Auld Lang Syne " means literally "the old long ago" (syne = since, long ago). The words and chorus are as follows:

Chorus:
For auld lang syne, my jo,
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!
For 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 fitt,
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 fiere!
And gie's a hand o' thine!
And we'll tak a right guide-willie-waught,
For auld lang syne.

The word "jo", at the end of the second line of the chorus, is usually printed and sung as "dear"; this is the form used in the second of my sources below. The order of the stanzas will be found to vary slightly between various different sources, as also will the spelling of some words. Should anyone require a glossary of words in the Scottish dialect, I will be happy to help, in response to a query in reply to this post.

The words which I have quoted above are from: The Penguin Poetry Library; Burns - Poems Selected and Edited by William Beatty and Henry W. Meilke; Penguin Books; London; 1946 and 1977.

A further source is: Robert Burns: The Complete Poetical Works; Edited by James A. Mackay; Alloway Publishing, Darvel, Ayrshire, Scotland; 1993