Mark Alexander Boyd (13 January 1562 – 10 April 1601) was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

and soldier of fortune. He was born in

Ayrshire Ayrshire (, ) is a Counties of Scotland, historic county and registration county, in south-west Scotland, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. The lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area of Ayrshire and Arran covers the entirety ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. His father was from Penkill, Carrick, in

. He was educated under the care of his uncle, the

Archbishop of Glasgow The Archbishop of Glasgow is an archiepiscopal title that takes its name after the city of Glasgow in Scotland. The position and title were abolished by the Church of Scotland in 1689; and, in the Catholic Church, the title was restored by Pop ...

, James Boyd of Trochrig. As a young man, he left Scotland for

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, where he studied civil law. He took part in the

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, serving in the army of Henri III. He had two collections of

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

poem Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

s published, in 1590 and 1592, at a time when he was teaching at the College of Guienne in Bordeaux. He returned to Scotland in 1596, and died back in Ayrshire on 10 April 1601. He is now remembered for one poem in Scots, the ''Sonnet of Venus and Cupid'', which was attributed to him by

Arthur Quiller-Couch Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch (; 21 November 186312 May 1944) was a Cornish people, British writer who published using the pen name, pseudonym Q. Although a prolific novelist, he is remembered mainly for the monumental publication ''The Oxfor ...

in 1900, and which

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an List of poets from the United States, American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Ita ...

called "the most beautiful sonnet in the language"Pound, Ezra (1934), p. 134

Works

* * Epistolae Heroides et Hymni (1592)Boyd, Mark Alexander (1592), ''Epistolae Heroides et Hymni'', Jérôme Haultin, La Rochelle * Sonnet of Venus and Cupid

References

Bibliography

*Pound, Ezra. ''ABC of Reading'' (1934) New Directions (reprint).

External links

Significant Scots
Scottish soldiers 16th-century Scottish poets 16th-century Scottish male writers 16th-century soldiers 16th-century Scottish people Lallans poets 1562 births 1601 deaths Scottish mercenaries {{Scotland-poet-stub