Mark Alexander Boyd

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"