Robert Burns

I've been singing Robbie Burns's "Auld Lang Syne" all my life at various times - the New Year usually - and suddenly realised I didn't know what it meant. What, for example, is the meaning of "Should auld aquaintance be forgot/ And never brought to mind?/ Should auld aquaintance be forgot/ For old lang syne?" Well, they are questions: should we forget old friends and the good old days? No, he answers in the chorus: "For auld lang syne my dear/ For auld lang syne/ We'll take a cup of comfort yet/ For auld lang syne." That is: we'll remember the good old days and have a drink together to celebrate them.
I think. One can never be sure with Burns. His poems can be interpreted in many ways.
My grandfather, at weddings and such celebrations, never failed to get to his feet to make a speech and he always had an appropriate quote up his sleeve from Robbie Burns to emphasise a point he was making or a sentiment he was expressing. The trouble was that no one ever knew what it was he was saying because he always recited the words in what seemed like an impenetrable broad Scottish accent. The fact that he wasn't Scottish but of Irish stock (with maybe a touch of gypsy in there somewhere) didn't worry him or anyone else; it was the feeling the recitation of the poem inspired in the gathered host that impressed.
January 25th is Burns Night, not just in Scotland but all over the world where there are Burns societies or social gatherings of people of Scottish descent (and other hangers-on who like a tipple). What a night that is going to be this year, the year that is the 250th anniversary of his birth!