"Syne" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... I held on to the apples. And when I faced the barn I determined I'd whistle if I died in the attempt; but, boys, I don't believe anybody could have told that 'Yankee Doodle' from 'Auld Lang Syne.' I tell you my heart jumped when I passed the tumble-down old place; but it stood still when, as I marched up the plank-road, I heard a step behind me. I wheeled around in an instant, but there was nothing to be seen. The moon shone as bright as ever, but there was nothing ...
— Harper's Young People, January 13, 1880 - An Illustrated Weekly • Various
... said that the use of dialect makes the appeal of poetry provincial instead of national or universal. This is only true when the dialect poet is a pedant and obscures his meaning by fantastic spellings. The Lowland Scots element in 'Auld Lang Syne' has not prevented it from becoming the song of friendship of the Anglo-Saxon race all the world over. Moreover, the provincial note in poetry or prose is far from being a bad thing. In the 'Idylls' of Theocritus it gave new life to Greek poetry in the ...
— Songs of the Ridings • F. W. Moorman
... throughout that dreary space since I had left New York—the Quirks! The Quirks! Twenty years had passed since I had heard from them. They might be dead and gone long ago without my knowing it; yet, were they alive, I felt that one or other of them would hold out a friendly hand for auld lang syne. Before daybreak, I stole forth, hired a horse and buggy, asked the way to Methuen and, rousing Hawkins, bundled him, whining ...
— The Confessions of Artemas Quibble • Arthur Train
... I'm a new creature. I'm new in the sicht o' God an' He's new in mine—an' I prayed this mornin', a thing I haena dune for mair than twenty years—an' the auld burn was sweet an' clear, like when my laddie's lips sippit there lang syne—I daurna speak His name ower often, but God is gey guid to the sinfu' an' ...
— St. Cuthbert's • Robert E. Knowles
... undauntedly, "eneugh of wine! It was but twa days syne—wae's me for the cause—there was as much wine drunk in this house as would have floated a pinnace. There never was lack ...
— Bride of Lammermoor • Sir Walter Scott
... knichtis Agains the day dichtis The breest-plate that bricht is, To feght with their foue. The stoned steed stampis Throw curage and crampis, Syne on the land lampis; The night ...
— A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers • Henry David Thoreau
... dinner that during the ensuing Easter vacation the Scorpions should make a trip to Wolverhampton, en masse, for the purpose of picketing Bancroft Road and finding out what Kathleen was really like. And then, after singing "langers and godders" (Auld Lang Syne and God Save the King) the meeting broke up and the members dispersed darkly in various ...
— Kathleen • Christopher Morley
... stranger was to marry the king's dochter, and showed her the man: and it was Nicht Nought Nothing asleep in a chair. And she saw him, and cried to him, 'Waken, waken, and speak to me!' But he would not waken, and syne she cried, ...
— Custom and Myth • Andrew Lang
... thinking on your letter. And after supper I sat yawning wide enough to swallow St. Enoch's Kirk, till twelve of the clock struck. Then I took a bit look at my ledger just to see how matters stood between us. Syne I called up Mattie and bade her light the lamp and convoy me down to the tolbooth. I have entry here at any hour of the night and day, and so had my father ...
— Red Cap Tales - Stolen from the Treasure Chest of the Wizard of the North • Samuel Rutherford Crockett
... d'ye no ken? The poor Hieland body, Dugald Mahony, cam here a while syne, wi' ane o' his arms cuttit off, and a sair clour in the head—ye'll mind Dugald, he carried aye an axe on his shouther—and he cam here just begging, as I may say, for something to eat. Aweel, he tauld us the Chief, as they ca'd him (but I aye ...
— Waverley, Or 'Tis Sixty Years Hence, Complete • Sir Walter Scott
... we done aught amiss? Oh, relent! But—parent, thy hands grow colder! Say, with ours wilt thou let us rekindle in thine The glow that has departed? Wilt thou sing us some song of the days of lang syne? Wilt thou tell us some tale, from those volumes divine, Of ...
— Poems • Victor Hugo
... "Auld lang syne." How touching it was! It brought tears to Jessie's eyes. She had learned it, when a child, far, far away; and it recalled her tribe, her childhood, her country, and her mother. I could see these thoughts throw their shadows over her face, ...
— Nature and Human Nature • Thomas Chandler Haliburton
... was living, he saw his wife at the door, and could therefore do no other than inquire for her husband. "Weel, Margaret, how is Tammas?" "None the better o'you," was the curt reply. "How, how, Margaret," inquired the minister. "Oh, ye promised twa years syne tae ca' and pray once a fortnight wi' him, and hae ne'er darkened the door sin' syne." "Weel, weel, Margaret, don't be so short! I thought it was not so very necessary to call and pray with Tammas, for he is so deaf ye ken he canna hear me." ...
— Anecdotes & Incidents of the Deaf and Dumb • W. R. Roe
... acquaintance be forgot And never brought to min'? Should old acquaintance be forgot And the days of Auld Lang Syne? ...
— Children of the Bush • Henry Lawson
... more than once trodden those fields and gazed on those scenes; and from hoary mountain, trickling rill, and vesper bell, meanwhile, mystic tones of strange memorial music seem to sigh, in remembered accents, through the soul's plaintive echoing halls, "'Twas auld lang syne, my dear, 'Twas ...
— The Destiny of the Soul - A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life • William Rounseville Alger
... I sat silent, but not uninterested, while the days of 'Auld Lang Syne' came up to the remembrance of the two friends. After speaking of several individuals who were among their former acquaintances, one asked, 'Do you remember Miss W.? 'Yes,' replied the former, I remember her as the fear, terror, and abhorrence of all ...
— The Teacher • Jacob Abbott
... warrior, handkerchiefs were waved, hats flew up in the air, everyone was so proud of him, so pleased to see him! Mayor Chapin introduced the General, and as he stood patiently waiting for the audience to regain its self-control, the band played "Auld Lang Syne." Then in the presence of that great crowd he gave me a soldier's welcome. I remember one sentence uttered by Sherman that night that revealed the character of the great fighter when he said, "The same God that appeared at Nazareth ...
— T. De Witt Talmage - As I Knew Him • T. De Witt Talmage
... melody of speculation as to Isabella Kingan's heart he had played over again with the tempo rubato and the pressed loud pedal of sentimentality, and it was now no more than agreeably affecting as a Scotch song ... being kind to the wean for the sake of her who was my sweethairt in auld lang syne.... ...
— The Judge • Rebecca West
... had blossomed out into young ladyhood. She wore her hair now in an enormous pompador and had discarded the blue ribbon bows of auld lang syne, but her face was as freckled, her nose as snubbed, and her mouth and smiles ...
— Anne Of The Island • Lucy Maud Montgomery
... had been in conversation. On asking the cause of this, he received for answer, "Indeed, sir, they were saying ye had preached an auld sermon to-day, but I tackled them, for I tauld them it was no'an auld sermon, for the minister had preached it no' sax months syne." ...
— The Jest Book - The Choicest Anecdotes and Sayings • Mark Lemon
... the story of their lives, and the last siphon fizzed impotently when urged beyond its capacity, Kerns arose and extended his hand, and Harren took it. And they executed a song resembling "Auld Lang Syne." ...
— The Tracer of Lost Persons • Robert W. Chambers
... long syne," said he, and the tear was at his cheek. "Let me go into it cannily at night-fall from the Cromalt end, when the boys and girls were dancing on the green to the pipes at the end of a harvest-day. Them in a reel, with none of the ...
— John Splendid - The Tale of a Poor Gentleman, and the Little Wars of Lorn • Neil Munro
... with Cotter, who sang some Hudson's Bay songs, Richards sang a jolly college song or two, Stanton a "classic," and then all who could sing joined in "Auld Lang Syne." ...
— The Long Labrador Trail • Dillon Wallace
... boy with a beautiful tenor voice sang Auld Lang Syne under the boy's window. He stood with his hand on the cuff of his empty sleeves and listened. And suddenly a great shame filled him, that with so many gone forever, with men dying every minute of every hour, back at the lines, ...
— Love Stories • Mary Roberts Rinehart
... heir Sir John Aytoun, nor in the edition of his works with a memoir prepared by Dr. Charles Rogers, published in Edinburgh in 1844 and reprinted privately in 1871. Dean Stanley, in his 'Memorials of Westminster Abbey,' accords to him the original of 'Auld Lang Syne,' which Rogers includes in his edition. Burns's song follows the version attributed to ...
— Library Of The World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern, Vol 3 • Various
... way To the streets of Keswick gray. Then amid a weary waste On to Penrith Town we raced, And for many a flying mile, Past the ramparts of Carlisle, Till we crossed the border line Of the land of Auld lang syne. Here we paused at Gretna Green, Where many curious things were seen At the grimy blacksmith's shop, Where flying couples used to stop And forge within the smithy door The chain which ...
— Songs Of The Road • Arthur Conan Doyle
... And speir quhat law it levis on? And gif it sayis on Godis ley, Than to the litill gaist ye say, With braid benedicite; —"Litill gaist, I conjure the, With lierie and larie, Bayth fra God, and Sanct Marie, First with ane fischis mouth, And syne with ane sowlis towth, With ten pertane tais, And nyne knokis of windil strais, With thre heidis of curle doddy."— And bid the gaist turn in a boddy. Then efter this conjuratioun, The litill gaist will fall ...
— Minstrelsy of the Scottish border (3rd ed) (1 of 3) • Walter Scott
... rear of the Casino, is a fine group of figures in sandstone, called "Auld Lang Syne," the work of Robert Thomson, the self-taught sculptor, and a little to the southeast of this is a bronze statue of Professor Morse, erected by the Telegraph Operators' Association, and executed by Byron ...
— Lights and Shadows of New York Life - or, the Sights and Sensations of the Great City • James D. McCabe
... over her temples. Presently she laid her pipe down on the top of the mossy well, where the dripping bucket sat, and lifted the scarlet wreath of peppers, eyed it satisfactorily, and, as she resumed her work, began to hum "Auld Lang Syne." ...
— St. Elmo • Augusta J. Evans
... winsome thing, wad hae lookit twice at ony sic a serpent as him! Na, na, mem! Gang yer wa's hame, an' come back straucht frae yer prayers the morn's mornin'. By that time she'll be quaiet in her coffin, an' I'll be quaiet i' my temper. Syne I'll lat ye see her—maybe.—I wiss I was weel rid o' the sicht o' her, for I canna bide it. Lord, ...
— Malcolm • George MacDonald
... hae run about the braes, And pu'd the gowans fine; But we've wandered mony a weary foot, Sin' auld lang syne. ...
— On the Track • Henry Lawson
... silver domes of Lucknow, Moslem mosque and pagan shrine, Breathed the air to Britons dearest, The air of Auld Lang Syne; O'er the cruel roll of war-drums Rose that sweet and homelike strain; And the tartan clove the turban, As the Goomtee ...
— Successful Recitations • Various
... when I was sitting with Landor, and he, as usual, was discoursing of "lang syne," he rose, saying, "Stop a bit; I've something to show you,"—and, leaving the room for a moment, returned with a small writing-desk, looking as old as himself. "Now I want you to look at something I have here," he continued, seating himself and opening the desk. "There, what ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 104, June, 1866 • Various
... it all to our foray to Simprin. But" (the old man would add in conclusion), "would that the good old times were come back again, when I could meet Cunningham in the field; and he should find the hand that unhorsed him five and twenty years syne has lost but little of ...
— Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Volume III • Various
... else!" decisively returned Peter. "How can they be? I ken for mysel'," he went on, "that if it was me, I wad hae been in starvation lang syne." ...
— The Underworld - The Story of Robert Sinclair, Miner • James C. Welsh
... nane daur'd break the jail, And still the sobbing o' the sea might mix wi' their warlock wail, But then came in black echty-echt, and bluidy echty-nine, Wi' Cess, and Press, and Presbytery, and a' the dule sin' syne, The Saints won free wi' the power o' the key, and cavaliers maun pine! It was Halyburton, Middleton, and Roy and young Dunbar, That Livingstone took on Cromdale haughs, in the last fight of the war: And they were warded in the Bass, till the time they ...
— Ban and Arriere Ban • Andrew Lang
... than fair, Should this prove a dull letter, That you write me a better; And something that's quite to the point. This having premised As at present advised, I'll indulge in the thoughts that incline, Not with curious eye The dim future to spy, But glance backward to "Auld Lang Syne." If I recollect right, It was a cold day quite, And not far from night When the Boarding School famous I entered. Now what could I do? Scarce above my own shoe Did I dare take a view, Or to speak, or e'en move hardly ventured. ...
— The Kings and Queens of England with Other Poems • Mary Ann H. T. Bigelow
... his violin again, and played "Home, Sweet Home," and "Auld Lang Syne"; and Phil fancied the violin was a bird, and sang of its own free-will, and thinking this reminded him how soon he would hear the dear wild birds in the woods, and he wondered if the fairies ...
— Prince Lazybones and Other Stories • Mrs. W. J. Hays
... inscription in contemporary MS. occurs on the reverse of the Old Testament title to a Cranmer's Bible of 1540: "Thys byble ys John Crogdens, Cytyzen and merchant taylor of London, dwellynge in Wattlynge Street at y^e syne ...
— The Book-Collector • William Carew Hazlitt
... uncertain in what strain he would finally go off. First came a bar that sounded like Auld Lang Syne, then a note or two of Days of Absence, then a turn of a Methodist hymn, at last he went decidedly into "Nelly was a lady." The tune of this William had learned from Alice singing it to the piano. He begged her to teach him the words. She did so, telling him of ...
— Aunt Phillis's Cabin - Or, Southern Life As It Is • Mary H. Eastman
... gushing messages of optimistic goodwill and servile affection to people whom you would scarcely ask to lunch unless some one else had failed you at the last moment; if you are supping at a restaurant on New Year's Eve you are permitted and expected to join hands and sing 'For Auld Lang Syne' with strangers whom you have never seen before and never want to see again. But no licence is allowed in the ...
— Beasts and Super-Beasts • Saki
... the Stones of Stennis took shelter from a storm in a cottage close by the lake; and seeing a box-measuring-line in the bole or sole of the cottage window, he asked the woman where she got this well-known professional appendage. She said: "O sir, ane of the bairns fand it lang syne at the Stanes; and when drawing it out we took fright, and thinking it had belanged to the fairies, we threw it into the bole, and it ...
— Records of a Family of Engineers • Robert Louis Stevenson
... was not prompt by any means, though every one in the school knew that Eric was not afraid. So sure was he of this, that, for the sake of "auld lang syne," he would probably have declined to fight with Montagu had he been left to ...
— Eric • Frederic William Farrar
... hum of applauding voices increasing round it, till the popular fervour found articulate utterance in a burst of jubilant music. There swept past our ears, first, the moving strains of "Auld lang syne," and then, as if in answer to the appeal to "Auld acquaintance," came the jocund chorus "There is nae luck about the house"—most eloquent assurance that we were welcome home. And then in turn the music died down, and the crowd round the now halted procession cheered ...
— Uppingham by the Sea - a Narrative of the Year at Borth • John Henry Skrine
... sons to the wet ploughing, To ride the horse of tree, And syne her sons come back again ...
— Verses 1889-1896 • Rudyard Kipling
... for warldis unkyndness In hairt tane ony heviness, Or fro my plesans bene opprest; I had bene deid lang syne dowtless: For to be ...
— Playful Poems • Henry Morley
... kind to leave us thus; Yet we forgive you and combine, Although you now bring grief to us, To wish you joy, for auld lang syne. ...
— The Scarlet Gown - being verses by a St. Andrews Man • R. F. Murray
... wha it'll be. I wonder I didna think o' 'im sooner. It'll be the lad Wilkie; him 'at's mither mairit on Sam'l Duthie's wife's brither. They bide in Cupar, an' I mind 'at when the son was here twa or three year syne he was juist gaen to begin the diveenity classes ...
— A Window in Thrums • J. M. Barrie
... was thinkin' ye wid be gaen the length o' T'nowhead the nicht, an' I saw Sanders Elshioner makkin's wy there an oor syne." ...
— Library Of The World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern, Vol 4 • Charles Dudley Warner
... exceedingly by exclaiming, "I will switch off the song from one part of the room to another, so that all can hear." At a subsequent lecture in Salem, Massachusetts, communication was established with Boston, eighteen miles distant, and Mr. Watson at the latter place sang "Auld Lang Syne," the National Anthem, and "Hail Columbia," while the audience at Salem joined in ...
— Heroes of the Telegraph • J. Munro
... Rab, descending; ''tis from the other gate; 'tis a knight in blue damasked steel: he, methinks, that harboured in our castle some weeks syne.' ...
— The Caged Lion • Charlotte M. Yonge
... songs had been sung, several of the girls laid down their banjos, and after obeisance prepared to dance. Instead of being a sprightly performance to, lively music, "first ae caper syne anither," Japanese dancing is a very stately and measured performance, the body instead of the feet being most brought into requisition. With the aid of the indispensable fan the girls succeed in depicting many different ...
— Round the World • Andrew Carnegie
... hope, how very jolly it has been to have them, and how sorry we are to see them go. We shall probably sing those typical English ballads 'Auld Lang Syne' and 'Will ye no ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 153, Dec. 26, 1917 • Various
... said Mrs. Arnot with a laugh. "Come, Laura, give us something simple. I have heard severely classical and intricate music so long that I am ready to welcome even 'Auld lang syne.'" ...
— A Knight Of The Nineteenth Century • E. P. Roe
... world! They spoil these "social offsprings of the heart." Two veterans of the "men of the world" would have met with little more heart-workings than two old hacks worn out on the road. Apropos, is not the Scotch phrase, "Auld lang syne," exceedingly expressive? There is an old song and tune which has often thrilled through my soul. You know I am an enthusiast in old Scotch song. I shall give you the verses on the other sheet, as I suppose Mr. Kerr[92] will ...
— The Letters of Robert Burns • Robert Burns
... if her husband would let her. I wonder if she still wears those enormous blue bows, and whether her husband calls her Charlotta or Leonora. I should love to have Charlotta at my wedding. Charlotta and I were at a wedding long syne. They expect to be at Echo Lodge next week. Then there are Phil and ...
— Anne's House of Dreams • Lucy Maud Montgomery
... express messenger, in respect that I canna travel sae fast; and I am to come doun wi' twa of his Honour's servants—that is, John Archibald, a decent elderly gentleman, that says he has seen you lang syne, when ye were buying beasts in the west frae the Laird of Aughtermuggitie—but maybe ye winna mind him—ony way, he's a civil man—and Mrs. Dolly Dutton, that is to be dairy-maid at Inverara: and they bring me on as far as Glasgo', whilk will make it nae pinch to win hame, whilk ...
— Sir Walter Scott - (English Men of Letters Series) • Richard H. Hutton
... a note to my edition of Mr. F. Smith's translation of the Baghobahar, 1851, I inserted the following "petition." "May I request some friend in India, for auld lang syne, to ask any intelligent munshi the exact meaning of panchon hathiyar bandhna, showing him at the same time the original where the expression occurs." To this request I received, a few months ago, a very kind and ...
— Bagh O Bahar, Or Tales of the Four Darweshes • Mir Amman of Dihli
... in Phemie's room," the skipper had said. (Phemie was a daughter lately married.) "How will I do that," was the responding retort, "when the carpet is up, and the iron bedstead was broke by Rab a week syne?" ...
— Bluebell - A Novel • Mrs. George Croft Huddleston
... nothing to do, Let me sit in the gloaming, dear granny, with you; The clock will soon ring us the hour of nine, Please talk to me, Grandma, of dear auld lang syne." ...
— Grandma's Memories • Mary D. Brine
... afferme and say That with one herbe they hele can euery sore Under euery syne plenete, houre and day Yet besyde this they boldly dare say more That it that helyth a man aged and hore Shall helpe also a woman or a childe Thus many thousandes oft ar by ...
— The Ship of Fools, Volume 1 • Sebastian Brandt
... that just possibly Walters might give them an evening at the College. By Jove! sir, he did give them an evening, and gave them a substantial fee, and filled their poor trembling cup of Auld lang syne with joy and thanksgiving, and dismissed them with honour, almost reeling with the intoxication of so unwonted a success, the boys giving them a mighty three-times-three which shook the welkin, and stirred amazingly the pulsation of two hearts that have long desisted ...
— The Bed-Book of Happiness • Harold Begbie
... of Synay is clept the Desert of Syne, that is for to seyne the bussche brennynge: because there Moyses sawghe oure Lord God many tymes, in forme of fuyr brennynge upon that hille; and also in a bussche brennynge; and spak to him. And that was at the foot of the hille. There is an abbeye of ...
— The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries - of the English Nation. v. 8 - Asia, Part I. • Richard Hakluyt
... can still feel the spirit that bore us, And often the old stars will shine — I remember the last spree in chorus For the sake of that other Lang Syne, When the tracks lay divided before us, Your path through ...
— In the Days When the World Was Wide and Other Verses • Henry Lawson
... luck! I was for usin' it long syne, but the old man wouldn't leave me do it. 'No, Cleena, thee's not so young as thee was, an' thee might be wantin' it for doctor's stuff,' says he. Twenty-five dollars! That'd pay the rent an' buy flour an' tea, an' what not;" and with ...
— Reels and Spindles - A Story of Mill Life • Evelyn Raymond
... twa hae wandered o'er the braes, And pu'ed the gowans fine; I've wandered many a weary foot Sin auld lang syne. ...
— The Trial - or, More Links of the Daisy Chain • Charlotte M. Yonge
... Then spak the earl hight Hamilton, And to the noble king said he, 'My sovereign prince, some counsel take, First of your nobles, syne of me. ...
— Ballads of Robin Hood and other Outlaws - Popular Ballads of the Olden Times - Fourth Series • Frank Sidgwick
... of approval. Then the first notes of "Auld Lang Syne" sounded on the piano, and the entire audience, led by the senior glee club, rose to their feet to join in that sweetest of old songs whose plaintive melody causes heart strings to tighten and eyes ...
— Grace Harlowe's Sophomore Year at High School • Jessie Graham Flower
... the stars of Heaven, Thus did ye walk the crystal dome, When to the earth a child was given, Within a love-lit, northern home; Thus leading up the starry train, With aspect still benign, Ye move in your fair orbs again As on that birth long syne. ...
— The International Weekly Miscellany, Volume I. No. 9. - Of Literature, Art, and Science, August 26, 1850 • Various
... Biggest Liar in Asia, who was trying to cap all their stories at once. Everybody was there, and there was a general closing up of ranks and taking stock of our losses in dead or disabled that had fallen during the past year. It was a very wet night, and I remember that we sang 'Auld Lang Syne' with our feet in the Polo Championship Cup, and our heads among the stars, and swore that we were all dear friends. Then some of us went away and annexed Burma, and some tried to open up the Soudan and were opened up by Fuzzies in ...
— Life's Handicap • Rudyard Kipling
... mony a day has since rollit ower me, and I am now but a dour carle, whose auld pow the roll o' time hath blanched; my bonnie Janet is gone to her last hame, lang syne, my bairns hae a' fa'en kemping for their king and country, and I ainly am left like a withered auld trunk, waiting heaven's gude time when I sall be laid i' ...
— The Mirror Of Literature, Amusement, And Instruction - Vol. X, No. 289., Saturday, December 22, 1827 • Various
... am half a Scot by birth, and bred A whole one; and my heart flies to my head As "Auld Lang Syne" brings Scotland, one and all— Scotch plaids, Scotch snoods, the blue hills and clear streams, The Dee, the Don, Balgounie's brig's black wall— All my boy feelings, all my gentler dreams Of what I then dreamt, clothed in their ...
— Byron • John Nichol
... the creature in the drumlie lynns under the castle, and at the hinder end of all cuist him up on the starling of Crossmichael brig. Sae there they were a'thegither at last (for Dickieson had been brought in on a cart long syne), and folk could see what mainner o'man my brither had been that had held his head again sax and saved the siller, and him drunk!" Thus died of honourable injuries and in the savour of fame Gilbert Elliott of the Cauldstaneslap; but his sons had ...
— Weir of Hermiston • Robert Louis Stevenson
... singing with Harry Lauder. And so we went on without him, and the concert was a great success. I had to give a dozen encores, I mind. And puir Roberts! He got no more engagements, and a little later became a chorus man with a touring opera company. I'm minded of him the noo because, not so lang syne, he met me face to face in London, and greeted me like ...
— Between You and Me • Sir Harry Lauder
... all our little feuds, at least all mine, Dear Jefferson, once my most redoubted foe (As far as rhyme and criticism combine To make such puppets of us things below), Are over: Here 's a health to 'Auld Lang Syne!' I do not know you, and may never know Your face—but you have acted on the whole Most nobly, and I ...
— Don Juan • Lord Byron
... the men inside were playing draughts, others were finishing their breakfast; one was playing "Auld Lang Syne", with many extempore flourishes and trills, on a flute, which was very much out of tune. A few were smoking, of course (where exists the band of Britons who can get on without that!) and several were sitting astride on the cross-beams below, bobbing—not exactly for whales, but ...
— The Lighthouse • R.M. Ballantyne
... "It was thae gipsies, sirs! I had a dream about them, five nights syne! A lintwhite was flying by them, and they gave chase. Either it's that or she made away with herself! I had a dream that might be ...
— Foes • Mary Johnston
... would have it, the squire was passing by the farm-house that very evening, and called there, as is often his custom. He found the two schoolmates still gossiping in the porch, and, according to the good old Scottish song, "taking a cup of kindness yet, for auld lang syne." The squire was struck by the contrast in appearance and fortunes of these early playmates. Ready-Money Jack, seated in lordly state, surrounded by the good things of this life, with golden guineas hanging to his very watch chain, ...
— Bracebridge Hall • Washington Irving
... exercises Grace delivered a spirited senior charge which was ably answered by the junior president. The class song composed by Jessica was sung, then graduates and audience joined in singing "Auld Lang Syne." Then the air was rent with class yells, while the graduates received the congratulations of their friends and ...
— Grace Harlowe's Senior Year at High School - or The Parting of the Ways • Jessie Graham Flower
... needed no explanation. She had seen how things were from the first. She had once caught sight of Malcolm's face when Elizabeth Templeton had passed him so closely that her dress brushed against him. She had seen that look in Amias's eyes in the dear auld lang syne. ...
— Herb of Grace • Rosa Nouchette Carey
... stepmother. It seems the woman wanted her to marry a nephew of her ain kith and kin, and in this matter her father was of the same mind. The old man doubtless wanted a sough of peace in his own home. That was how things stood a couple of weeks syne, but yestreen I heard what may make the change wanted. This is how ...
— An Orkney Maid • Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr
... had on our old blue checks; and Mary never minds anything when Armyn is there to take care of us. When they heard in the drawing-room what we had been doing, they made Mary sing 'Auld Lang Syne,' because of 'We twa hae paidlit in the burn frae morning sun till dine;' and whenever in future times I meet ...
— Countess Kate • Charlotte M. Yonge
... the League formed an enormous circle round the room and each clasping her neighbor's hand, all joined in the singing of "Auld Lang Syne": cowboy and Indian princess, Redskin and Scotch lassie, Canadian and Jap roared the familiar chorus, and having thus worked off steam retired to their dormitories and went to bed without breaking their pledge of good behavior. Rachel, returning ...
— The Jolliest School of All • Angela Brazil
... of "Auld Lang Syne," with execrable attempts at part-singing, little Dan Lefferts, a dissolute house-painter, contributing a tenor that was ...
— The Boss of Little Arcady • Harry Leon Wilson
... you needn't Mr Venus be your black bottle, For surely I'll be mine, And we'll take a glass with a slice of lemon in it to which you're partial, For auld lang syne."' ...
— Our Mutual Friend • Charles Dickens
... ane for Mistress Cavendish," replied a boy's clear treble. "An' there was ane for Mistress Standish a while syne; ...
— The Long Trick • Lewis Anselm da Costa Ritchie
... and you, wi' some o' your auld-warld stories, that the mind o' man canna resist, whirl'd them to the back o' beyont to look at the auld Roman campAh, sir!" turning to Lovel, "he wad wile the bird aff the tree wi' the tales he tells about folk lang syneand did not I lose the drinking o' sax pints o' gude claret, for the deil ane wad hae stirred till he had seen that out at ...
— The Antiquary, Complete • Sir Walter Scott
... same color, and fastened in front with a small amethyst set with pearls. For fanciful Flora had said: "Dear Mamita Lila, don't have everything about your dress cold white or gray. Do let something violet or lilac peep out from the snow, for the sake of 'auld lang syne.'" ...
— A Romance of the Republic • Lydia Maria Francis Child
... syne he sang, An' syne we thocht him fou, An' syne he trumped his partner's trick, An' garred ...
— The Works of Rudyard Kipling One Volume Edition • Rudyard Kipling
... silver domes of Lucknow, Moslem mosque and Pagan shrine, Breathed the air to Britons dearest, The air of Auld Lang Syne. O'er the cruel roll of war-drums Rose that sweet and homelike strain; And the tartan clove the turban, As the Goomtee cleaves ...
— Selections From American Poetry • Various
... that day he kept them in his pocket, sometimes, however, taking them out to smell their fragrance, and then, somehow, the remembrance of Pollie's wee face as she looked when timidly offering the flowers, carried him back to the days of "auld lang syne," those happy days when he and his little sister (long since dead) had rambled through the green lanes of his native village, searching for sweet violets, and this memory cheered the poor tired policeman, made him forget the ceaseless din around and the never-ending ...
— Little Pollie - A Bunch of Violets • Gertrude P. Dyer
... down the rough, icy current of the Ohio. Against his wife's protest he took up the violincello and began to tune up its three remaining strings. Touching the chords lightly with the bow, he attempted to play "Auld Lang Syne." A confused noise in the direction of the river stopped ...
— A Dream of Empire - Or, The House of Blennerhassett • William Henry Venable
... grown with it and into it, that you do not know they are chiefly rubbish till you begin to move them and they fall to pieces, and don't know it then, but persist in packing them up and carrying them away for the sake of auld lang syne, till, set up again in your new abode, you suddenly find that their sacredness is gone, their dignity has degraded into dinginess, and the faded, patched chintz sofa, that was not only comfortable, but respectable, in the old wainscoted sitting-room, has suddenly turned into "an object," ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 10, No. 57, July, 1862 - A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics • Various
... Coquetting rarely comes amiss, Though she might never love, with many lovers near! Grandmother often said to her, "Child, child!" with gentle frown, "A meadow's not a parlour, and the country's not a town, And thou knowest well that we have promised thee lang syne To the soldier-lad, Marcel, who is lover true of thine. So curb thy flights, thou giddy one, The maid who covets all, in the end mayhap hath none." "Nay, nay," replied the tricksy fay, With swift caress, and laughter gay, "There ...
— Jasmin: Barber, Poet, Philanthropist • Samuel Smiles
... he! There's no' a house in Edinburgh safe. The law is clean helpless, clean helpless! A week syne it was auld Andra Simpson's in the Lawn-market. Then, naething would set the catamarans but to forgather privily wi' the Provost's ain butler, and tak' unto themselves the Provost's ain plate. And the day, information was laid down before me offeecially that the limmers had ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson, Volume XV • Robert Louis Stevenson
... that, beyond a rudimentary acquaintance with "Auld Lang Syne" and "The Wearing of the Green," I had no pretension whatever to that style. He seemed much put out of countenance; and one of his taller companions asked him, on the nail, ...
— Across The Plains • Robert Louis Stevenson
... but I have!" exclaimed the young man; and he at once rendered "O Nannie" with faultless modulations, and another or two of the like sentiment, winding up at their earnest request with "Auld Lang Syne." ...
— The Mayor of Casterbridge • Thomas Hardy
... proclaimed "I'm ower young to marry yet",—a self-evident proposition, as she was only thirteen. Stuart and Loveday were crooning "Flowers of the Forest" as a kind of soprano dirge, which was drowned by a chorus of juniors roaring "Auld Lang Syne". ...
— A harum-scarum schoolgirl • Angela Brazil
... confined in a den. Here he became disconsolate, pined, and would scarcely take food; at length, he was reconciled to his new situation, recovered his health, became attached to his keepers, and appeared to have forgotten "auld lang syne," when, after the lapse of eighteen months, his old master returned. At the first sound of his voice—that well-known, much-loved voice—the wolf, which had not perceived him in a crowd of persons, exhibited ...
— Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 2, No. 12, May, 1851. • Various
... from home?" yelled a whiskered sergeant, jumping from a log where he was mending a rent in his pants, and giving me a hand the color of his favorite tan gloves in days lang syne—"Pretty tight work up here, you see, but we manage to keep comfortable!"—God save ...
— Four Years in Rebel Capitals - An Inside View of Life in the Southern Confederacy from Birth to Death • T. C. DeLeon
... "Syne Bell got orders to tak' the Kite round to Liverpool in water-ballast, and McRimmon came to bid's good-bye, yammerin' an' whinin' o'er the acres o' paint he'd lavished on ...
— The Day's Work, Volume 1 • Rudyard Kipling
... they are a very gude auld family in the county, never thought, till within these twa score o' years, of evening themselves till the Ellangowans—Wow, woman, the Bertrams of Ellangowan are the auld Dingawaies lang syne—there is a sang about ane o' them marrying a daughter of the King ...
— Guy Mannering • Sir Walter Scott
... lingeringly and lovingly. This spot had always been so dear to him. What fun they all had had here lang syne. Phantoms of memory seemed to pace the dappled paths and peep merrily through the swinging boughs—Jem and Jerry, bare-legged, sunburned schoolboys, fishing in the brook and frying trout over the old stone fireplace; Nan and Di and Faith, in their dimpled, fresh-eyed childish ...
— Rilla of Ingleside • Lucy Maud Montgomery |
