AULD LANG SYNE
By David E. Shi, President, Furman University, Greenville, SC, USA
Our First Guest Columnist

With the exception of "Happy Birthday," it is probably the most recognizable song in the English-speaking world. But every December 31, when millions raise their glass, link arms, and toast the New Year, few will actually know the words to "Auld Lang Syne." Fewer still are familiar with its colorful author.

"Auld Lang Syne" was first published in 1796, and researchers think at least half of the verses were written by Robert Burns. The son of a tenant farmer, Burns never claimed full credit for the song, confessing that he transcribed part of it "from an old man’s singing." Literary historians continue to debate whether Burns is Scotland’s greatest poet, but all agree he was the most romantic and sentimental.

The phrase auld lang syne means "from long ago." Like many of Burns’s works, the song celebrates long remembered friendships and loves, the joys of the past, and, of course, imbibing in the "cup of kindness."

"Auld Lang Syne" was one of more than one thousand poems and songs that Burns authored during his short life of thirty-seven years. His works have been translated into more languages than any other poet, except Shakespeare.

Many of Burns’s phrases have become part of our common expression. How often, while reading the morning paper, have we pondered "man’s inhumanity to man," or resigned ourselves to the truth that that "no man can tether time or tide," or steeled ourselves with the resolve to "do or die"?

Burns toiled most of his life as a tenant farmer and tax collector. In 1786, however, he published a volume titled Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect. It was an immediate success, hailed by simple country folk and sophisticated critics alike. Flushed with his sudden fame, the twenty-six-year-old Burns set out for Edinburgh, where he was celebrated by the city’s elite.

Burns’s songs and ballads provide earthy accounts of eating, drinking, and carousing. The poet was a literal romantic who constantly crossed the bounds of acceptable behavior. He fathered fifteen children, six out of wedlock. To his credit, though, the "Ploughman Poet" accepted paternal responsibility for all of his children, and he provided them with financial support.

Burns described himself as a "miserable dupe to love." He added that "God knows I am no saint. I have a whole host of follies and sins to answer for." Yet people loved him despite his excesses. His lover and later wife, Jean Armour, once lamented, "Poor Rob – he should have two wives."

Women forgave Burns’s wandering eye in part because he was so charming and affectionate. A Scottish woman declared that "no man’s conversation ever carried her so off her feet" as that of Burns. He showered women with poetry, songs, and soul-baring letters. He relished their company, once announcing that the "sweetest hours that e’er I spent are among the lasses."

In 1789 Burns secured a post as a tax collector and moved to Dumfries in 1791, where he lived until his death. He produced the bulk of his poetry during the final twelve years of his life. Some of his detractors claimed the poet died of venereal disease, but most scholars believe he died of heart disease exacerbated by the hard manual labor he undertook as a youth. More than ten thousand people clogged the streets of Dumfries to mourn Burns’s death. His popularity has grown ever since.

So this New Year’s Eve, as you are toasting the coming year, raise a glass to Robert Burns and learn the words to "Auld Lang Syne." You will impress your friends.