Every year, the first lines of the Scots poem “Auld Lang Syne” by Robert Burns prompt us to muse on the same question: Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind? As we move into the new year, what do we do with our memory of the old year?
Burns isn’t alone in his reflections on this point. Other poets too have seized the occasion of the celebration of the new year to reflect on how we ought to treat memory.
