Mark Alexander Boyd

Mark Alexander Boyd Poems

Mark Alexander Boyd Biography

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.)

The Best Poem Of Mark Alexander Boyd

Sonet

FRA bank to bank, fra wood to wood I rin,
   Ourhailit with my feeble fantasie;
   Like til a leaf that fallis from a tree,
Or til a reed ourblawin with the win.

Twa gods guides me: the ane of tham is blin,
   Yea and a bairn brocht up in vanitie;
   The next a wife ingenrit of the sea,
And lichter nor a dauphin with her fin.

Unhappy is the man for evermair
   That tills the sand and sawis in the air;
   But twice unhappier is he, I lairn,
That feidis in his hairt a mad desire,
And follows on a woman throw the fire,
   Led by a blind and teachit by a bairn.

Mark Alexander Boyd Comments