The Bard
Elizabethan sonnet master
The Bard is Shakespeare—William Shakespeare, the English playwright and poet.
The definite article and capital B signal a singular, elevated status: I've been reading the Bard lately.
The title acknowledges his unmatched influence on English literature and language.
Other poets may be bards; only Shakespeare is the Bard.
- ShakespeareElizabethan dramatist and poet
- poetWriter of verse
- minstrelTraveling performer of songs
- lyreSmall plucked string instrument
- verseMetered poetic passage
William Shakespeare · sonnet · Stratford · playwright · tale · quill · stage · Avon · troubadour · storyteller · Globe · Globe Theatre · rhyme · ballad · melody · Hamlet · scribe · harp
literary form and medium
The BardCharles Dickens
Jane Austen · Leo Tolstoy · Fyodor Dostoevsky · Henry James · novelists
historical period
The Bardcontemporary writers
Authors active today
modern authors · Stephen King · Toni Morrison · Salman Rushdie