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"
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“For this is the mark of a wise and upright man, not to rail against the gods in misfortune.”
—Aeschylus (525–456 B.C.)
“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)