Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to min’?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And days o’ auld lang syne?

These lines open Robert Burns’s Scots song “Auld Lang Syne,” a work he sent to James Johnson for inclusion in The Scots Musical Museum in 1788. Burns presented it as an old song he had taken down from oral tradition, though his shaping of the text was crucial in the form now famous. The lyric evokes the custom of marking partings and the turn of the year by recalling old friendships. Over time, the song became closely associated with New Year’s Eve celebrations in Scotland and, through print and performance, throughout the English-speaking world.

The speaker poses a rhetorical question: is it right to let “auld acquaintance” (old friends and shared history) slip into oblivion? By repeating the question, the song insists that memory and loyalty should outlast time and distance. “Auld lang syne” literally gestures to “long ago,” but the phrase carries emotional weight: it is not mere nostalgia, but a moral claim that past bonds deserve recognition in the present. The lines set the tone for a communal ritual—remembering together—where personal recollection becomes a shared affirmation of friendship and continuity.

1) “Should auld acquaintance be forgot, / And never brought to mind?”
2) “Should old acquaintance be forgot, / And never brought to mind?”
3) “Should auld acquaintance be forgot, / And days of auld lang syne?”