1a. What is the question asked in lines 1–4?
2a. In lines 9 and 10, what does the speaker remember doing with his friend?
3a. What is the speaker offering his friend in lines 17 and 18?
4a. What values are being expressed in this song? Cite evidence that it expresses the voices of hard-working people who have little material wealth?
5a. Evaluate the enduring appeal of this song.
1b. Is this a real question—does the speaker want to know the opinion of someone else? Or is it a rhetorical question, and if so, what point is he making?
2b. What stage of life is the speaker recalling?
3b. What are the friends sharing besides a drink?
4b. How would you characterize the tone of this song—as intellectual and rational, or as spontaneous and emotional? How does it reflect the Romantic tradition?
5b. Burns, an ardent supporter of the French Revolution, wrote "Auld Lang Syne" a year before that fighting broke out. Does this song support the ideals of the French Revolution: Liberty, Equality and Fraternity?
Hymn. What is Burns praising in this song? What particular characteristics make this piece sound like a hymn? Why do you think this song has continued to be so popular over the years?
Dialect. How does the use of the Scots dialect affect the song? How would the song be different if written in a more formal version of English?
1a. What did John Anderson look like when the speaker first knew him?
2a. What does John Anderson look like now?
3a. What does the speaker remember doing with John Anderson, and what does she anticipate doing now?
4a. What have the speaker and John done together in the past, and what will they do together in the future? What might these actions symbolize?
5a. What attitude is expressed toward loyalty and commitment in this poem? What evidence do you find in the poem for your opinion?
1b. What are the speaker's feelings on remem-bering John's appearance as a young man?
2b. How does the speaker feel about John Anderson's appearance now?
3b. What might the hill represent and what are the speaker's feelings about the future with John?
4b. What might you say about the relationship between the two people in this poem?
5b. In what way are the themes of this poem and of "Auld Lang Syne" similar?
Metaphor. Analyze the metaphor of the hill that the speaker and John have climbed and will now "totter" down. What does it represent? Why is a hill an appropriate metaphor for this?
Image. Complete the following sensory details chart with images in this poem.
3d.
3e.
5c.
6d.
10d.
What attitudes do these images express?
1. Write a personal letter to a childhood friend recounting a special memory you have of a time the two of you shared.
2. Write brief character sketches of the two people featured in this poem. Base your sketches on information provided in the poem; however, use your imagination and fill in the blanks when necessary.
3. Write a monologue by the speaker of the poem. You might have the person comment about marriage, life on a farm, or poetry.
Compound Sentences. Rewrite the sentences below to make them compound sentences.
1. Your hair was like the raven. Your bonny brow was smooth.
2. Your hair is like the snow. Blessings on your frosty head!
3. We climbed the hill together. We had many a happy day.
4. We have to trudge down. Hand in hand we'll go.
5. We'll sleep together at the foot. We'll always be friends.
Researching Calvinism. Using the library, the Internet, and perhaps your own church resources, research Calvinism. What are the central tenets of this movement within the Christian church? Why might a Romantic reject Calvinism?
Research Findings:
Sources Used:
Test-Taking Skills. Read the Language Arts Survey 5.47, "Taking Objective Tests." Then answer the following questions by selecting T if a sentence is true and F if a sentence is false.
1. As a young boy, John Anderson had red hair.
2. The two friends met recently.
3. John and the speaker had many happy days together.
4. John and the speaker are no longer young.
5. John Anderson is probably the speaker's husband.
