The Bard deconstructed

We all know the words, but what do they mean? Literary editor Stuart Kelly examines the poet's most famous works and reveals their hidden meaning

Ae Fond Kiss

Ae fond kiss, and then we sever!

Ae farewell, and then forever!

Deep in heart-wrung tears I'll pledge thee,

Warring sighs and goans I'll wage thee.

Who shall say that Fortune grieves him,

While the star of hope she leaves him ?

Me, nae cheerfu' twinkle lights me,

Dark despair around benights me.

I'll ne'er blame my partial fancy:

Naething could resist my Nancy!

But to see her was to love her

Love but her, and love for ever.

Had we never lov'd sae kindly,

Had we never lov'd sae blindly,

Never met – or never parted,

We had ne'er been broken-hearted.

Fare-thee-weel, thou first and fairest!

Fare-thee-weel, thou best and dearest!

Thine be ilka joy and treasure,

Peace, enjoyment, love and pleasure!

Ae fond kiss, and then we sever!

Ae farewell, alas, for ever!

Deep in heart-wrung tears I'll pledge thee,

Warring sighs and groans I'll wage thee.

Burns sent this song on December 27, 1791, to Mrs Agnes McLehose, an Edinburgh woman with whom he was still in love, just before she departed for Jamaica to attempt a reconciliation with her husband.

It's also a huge honking fib of a poem. "But to see her was to love her; Love but her, and love for ever", Burns writes. At the time, he had just reconciled with his own separated wife, Jean. He had also, when he was first seeing and falling irrevocably in love with Agnes McLehose, made her serving maid pregnant, which even then was not the done thing.

Scholars of Burns have wondered for centuries if the "ae fond kiss" is "just one more kiss" or "just, now that you're leaving, our first kiss".

Sir Walter Scott thought it expressed the "essence of a thousand love tales". It's a huge "if only" of a poem.

When he calls her 'my' Nancy (a usual pet name for Agnes), Burns is rather overlooking his wife, her husband and poor Jenny Clow.

To compound all the complications, Agnes is setting sail for exactly the place that Burns planned to go to, before literary fame changed his path and introduced him to Agnes. Partially he may have been planning to leave in the first place to avoid Jean and his responsibilities as a father.

My Luve Is Like A Red, Red Rose

0, my love is like a red, red rose,

That's newly sprung in June.

0, my love is like a melody,

That's sweetly play'd in tune.

As fair thou art, my bonnie lass,

So deep in love am I,

And I will love thee still, my dear,

Till a' the seas gang dry.

Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear,

And the rocks melt wi' the sun!

And I will love thee still, my dear,

While the sands of life shall run.

And fare thee weel, my only love!

And fare thee well awhile!

And I will come again, my love.

Tho it were ten thousand mile!

Why is this such a beautiful poem? Some critics have pointed out that it uses very few words, and that it builds up alliteration (newly, luve, melodie, sweetly, lass, played, melt, still, mile) with haunting effect; and that the vowels get longer and more longing.

Some critics have pointed out that the whole section of melting rocks and dried-out seas links to very current debates in Edinburgh scientific circles – a bit like putting references to global warming in a modern love poem. But those images could just as well be biblical: in the Book of Revelation 21, "there was no more sea" in the new Heaven, and Psalm 75 refers to the Earth dissolving.

Then there's the punch: "Fare thee weel". The poet is actually leaving: all the references to change were softening the blow. The promise to come again is almost – almost – undone by all the surreptitious references to endings.

You can almost forgive The Proclaimers and their five hundred miles and five hundred more in the face of those stark ten thousand at the end of Burns. It's nearly twelve times the distance between John O'Groats and Land's End – wherever the poet is going, it's genuinely far away.

That gets near the rub: it's a poem full of endings. Roses wither, melodies fade, the Earth and Sea evaporate and melt – and the singer will still love his "Dear". It insists on permanence in the face of change.

Auld Lang Syne

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,

And never brought to mind?

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,

And days o' auld lang syne.

Chorus

And for auld lang syne, my jo,

For auld lang syne,

We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet,

For auld lang syne,

And surely ye'll be your pint-stowp!

And surely I'll be mine!

And we'll tak a cup o' kindness yet,

For auld lang syne.

Chorus

We twa hae run about the braes

And pu'd the gowans fine;

But we've wander'd mony a weary foot

Sin auld lang syne.

Chorus

We twa hae paidl'd i' the burn,

Frae mornin' sun till dine;

But seas between us braid hae roar'd

Sin auld lang syne.

Chorus

And there's a hand, my trusty fiere!

And gie's a hand o' thine!

And we'll tak a right guid willy waught,

For auld lang syne.

Chorus

"Auld Lang Syne" literally means "old long since" but can be more poetically rendered as "long, long ago" or "days gone by". Matthew Fitt's Scots fairy stories use "In the days of auld lang syne" for "once upon a time" – "for old time's sake" is probably the closest in spirit and sense.

Some critics read the poem biographically, imagining Burns recollecting people like 'Highland Mary'. If so, there might be a satirical edge as well. Some of the early versions use "old" rather than "auld" – was Burns remembering the notorious Rev. William "Daddy" Auld, the minister who had consigned him to the repentance stool for fornication?

It dates back to at least before 1568, and a version in the Bannatyne Manuscript has the line "and auld kyndnes is quyt foryett". The refrain was later used by Sir Robert Ayton and Allan Ramsay. It was also used

for political ballads.

Gowans are just common daisies, and the image of the poet and his friend picking them together inevitably makes us wonder if this is addressed to one of Burns's previous amours (daisies, in chains or in playing "loves me, loves me not", are often both innocent and amorous in folklore). Although the "right guid willie waught" is just another name for a "cup of kindness", Burns also used the word in more adult contexts.

It may also evoke the "auld alliance" with France – "but seas between us braid hae roar'd" might well imply the friends "over the water".

When Burns sent the song to his friend Mrs Dunlop in 1788, he described himself as "Revolution-mad", and the "auld lang syne" is taken to refer to Scotland before the failure of the Jacobite cause, the Act of Union and the Glorious Revolution. Mrs Dunlop didn't melt to the words of the song – after another letter espousing his revolutionary ideals, she never spoke to Burns again.