In medieval Gaelic and British culture a bard was a professional poet, employed by a patron, such as a monarch or nobleman, to commemorate the patron's ancestors and to praise the patron's own activities.
Originally a specific class of poet, contrasting with another class known as fili in Ireland and Highland Scotland, the term "bard", with the decline of living bardic tradition in the modern period, acquired generic meanings of an epic author/singer/narrator, comparable with the terms in other cultures (minstrel, skald, scop, rhapsode, udgatar, griot, ashik) or any poets, especially famous ones. For example, William Shakespeare is known as The Immortal Bard.
Read more about Bard: Etymology and Origin, Irish Bards, History of Irish Bards, Scottish Bards, Welsh Bards, Revival
Famous quotes containing the word bard:
“... men and women are not yet free.... The slavery of greed endures. Little child workers, the hope of the future, are sacrificed to industry. Young men are sent out by the billion to die for profits.... We must destroy industrial slavery and build industrial democracy.... The people everywhere must come into possession of the earth [second, third, and fourth ellipses in source].”
—Sara Bard Field (1882–1974)
“There is one story and one story only
That will prove worth your telling,
Whether as learned bard or gifted child;”
—Robert Graves (1895–1985)
“A bard whom there were none to praise,
And very few to read.”
—Hartley Coleridge (1796–1849)