Monday's Poetry: "Same Old Lang Syne"

by Pa Rock
Poetry Appreciator

Tomorrow is New Year's Eve and Wednesday will officially usher in a new decade:  the 2020's!

The song "Auld Lang Syne" is traditionally associated with New Year's, and is often played and sung at the stroke of midnight as the year changes.   The song is rooted somewhere in the mists of history, but famed Scottish poet Robert Burns is generally credited with its preservation for modern times.  He sent a handwritten copy of a transcription to the Scots Musical Museum in the late 1700's along with this note:  "The following song, an old song, of the olden times, and which has never been in print, nor ever in manuscript until I took it down from an old man."

And the familiar words were preserved:

"Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and auld lang syne."

Burns fleshed out the words and is generally celebrated as the poet who wrote it, a song that has become synonymous with New Year's in the modern world.

The late Dan Fogelberg was another poet whose works were often presented in song.  Fogelberg wrote a song which captured the spirit of old acquaintances reuniting, albeit briefly.   His  "Same Old Lang Syne" (sometimes referred to as "Another Auld Lang Syne") has a dreamy quality as it presents a longing for times gone by.   The song centers on the accidental meeting of a couple who had been lovers many years before - and looks at the bittersweet nature of their lives as they drink beer and reminisce in a parked car late at night.  It's a touching piece of work that folds in nicely with the folk song that Robert Burns preserved from prehistory.


Same Old Lang Syne
by Dan Fogelberg

Met my old lover in the grocery store
The snow was falling Christmas Eve
I stood behind her in the frozen foods
And I touched her on the sleeve

She didn't recognize the face at first
But then her eyes flew open wide
She went to hug me and she spilled her purse
And we laughed until we cried

We took her groceries to the check out stand
The food was totaled up and bagged
We stood there lost in our embarrassment
As the conversation lagged

We went to have ourselves a drink or two
But couldn't find an open bar
We bought a six-pack at the liquor store
And we drank it in her car

We drank a toast to innocence
We drank a toast to now
We tried to reach beyond the emptiness
But neither one knew how

She said she's married her an architect
Who kept her warm and safe and dry
She would have liked to say she loved the man
But she didn't like to lie

I said the years had been a friend to her
And that her eyes were still as blue
But in those eyes I wasn't sure if I saw
Doubt or gratitude

She said she saw me in the record stores
And that I must be doing well
I said the audience was heavenly
But the traveling was Hell

We drank a toast to innocence
We drank a toast to now
We tried to reach beyond the emptiness
But neither one knew how

We drank a toast to innocence
We drank a toast to time
Reliving, in our eloquence
Another "Auld Lang Syne"

The beer was empty and our tongues were tired
And running out of things to say
She gave a kiss to me as I got out
And I watched her drive away

Just for a moment I was back at school
And felt that old familiar pain
And, as I turned to make my way back home
The snow turned into rain