The vast bulk of Auld Lang Syne is Burns own work. He based it on a poem first published in Watson's Collection then Allan Ramsay wrote version too. Burns only used the term Auld Lang Syne and he used the first line and the second line is similar. Apart from that though the rest of the verses in Burns song bare no resemblance to the original poem,plus the language used is different, plus the theme of the lyrics is not the same.