Jump to content

Mark Alexander Boyd

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Blythwood (talk | contribs) at 18:28, 30 August 2020 (add link). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Mark Alexander Boyd
Born13 January 1562
Ayrshire, Scotland
Died10 April 1601(1601-04-10) (aged 39)

Mark Alexander Boyd (13 January 1562 – 10 April 1601) was a Scottish poet and soldier of fortune. He was born in Ayrshire, Scotland. His father was from Penkill, Carrick, in Ayrshire. He was educated under the care of his uncle, the Archbishop of Glasgow, James Boyd of Trochrig. As a young man, he left Scotland for France, where he studied civil law. He took part in the French Wars of Religion, serving in the army of Henri III.

He had two collections of Latin poems published, in 1590 and 1592, at a time when he was living in south-west France. 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 in 1900, and which Ezra Pound called "the most beautiful sonnet in the language"[1]

Works

  • Epistolae Heroides et Hymni (1592)[2]
  • Sonnet of Venus and Cupid

References

  1. ^ Pound, Ezra (1934), pg. 134
  2. ^ Boyd, Mark Alexander (1592), Epistolae Heroides et Hymni, Jérôme Haultin, La Rochelle

Bibliography

  • Pound, Ezra. ABC of Reading (1934) New Directions (reprint). ISBN 0-8112-1893-7