Greetings from Kaye Spencer on New Year's Eve!

 A good many people around the world sing a rousing rendition of Robert Burns' Auld Lang Syne in the midnight hour as an optimistic welcome to the New Year and as a sentimental tribute to the Old Year, but I wonder how many people are aware that Robert Burns didn't write the poem. Rather, he wrote down the lyrics to an old Scottish folk song and added to it.

According to my sources, Poems for the New Year website at https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/poems-new-year and the Robert Burns website at http://www.robertburns.org/, "...Though the history of the authorship of the poem is labyrinthine and disputed, Burns is generally credited with penning at least two original stanzas to the version that is most familiar to revelers of the New Year. Here are the first two stanzas as Burns recorded them:

'Auld Lang Syne' by Robert Burns

    Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
    And never brought to mind?
    Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
    And auld lang syne!

    Chorus.

    For auld lang syne, my dear,
    For auld lang syne.
    We’ll take a cup o’ kindness yet,
    For auld lang syne."

So from me to you, wherever you may be as you read this, here is a bagpipe presentation of Auld Lang Syne performed by the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards.

Until next year,

Kaye

Writing the West one romance at a time
www.kayespencer.com

Coming Soon in 2016