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 Pinkell, Carrick in Ayrshire. Boyd left Scotland for France as a young man. There he studied civil law. He took part in the religious wars of the League, fighting on the Catholic side.
He had two collections of Latin poems published, in 1590 and 1592, at a time when he was in south-west France. He returned to Scotland only at the end of his life. He is now remembered for one poem in Scots, a sonnet which was attributed to him in 1900, and which Ezra Pound called "the most beautiful sonnet in the language"
Famous quotes containing the words mark, alexander and/or boyd:
“I pray that Allah may be moved
To drop sleep on her eyes because she loved.”
—Unknown. The Thousand and One Nights.
AWP. Anthology of World Poetry, An. Mark Van Doren, ed. (Rev. and enl. Ed., 1936)
“I thought when I was a young man that I would conquer the world with truth. I thought I would lead an army greater than Alexander ever dreamed of. Not to conquer nations, but to liberate mankind. With truth. With the golden sound of the Word. But only a few of them heard. Only a few of you understood. The rest of you put on black and sat in chapel.”
—Philip Dunne (1908–1992)
“We all want to be happy, and we’re all going to die.... You might say those are the only two unchallengeably true facts that apply to every human being on this planet.”
—William Boyd (b. 1952)