Ae fond memory
YOUR report on the public display of Burns’ original manuscript for Ae Fond Kiss (“A quick word with Burns”, The Herald, January1 9) quotes its opening lines, but not what many consider its greatest lines, possibly the most moving in all his works: “Never met – or never parted – We had ne’er been broken-hearted”.
As Sir Walter Scott said “they contain the essence of a thousand love tales” – and much of the lottery of life itself.
John Birkett,
12 Horseleys Park, St Andrews.
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