Mark Alexander Boyd

bruce — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 03:42:25 +0000

A sonnet by the Scots poet Mark Alexander Boyd, reprinted by Pound who called it the most beautiful sonnet in the language. Text is from The Oxford Book of English Verse (1919 – is it still in?). There is a fan site for Boyd with pictures of the blind boy and the wife, beautifully designed, which prints the poem with notes on provenance and references – and a glossary.

114. 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,	5
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;	10
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.

Wordability » sonnets

Mark Alexander Boyd