bards
Medieval lyric performers
Bards are poets, especially those who compose and recite verses celebrating heroes and history.
The term evokes ancient Celtic poets who preserved oral traditions through song and story.
Today bard often appears in literary or whimsical contexts: The bards of old sang of great battles.
Shakespeare is called the Bard of Avon, or simply the Bard.
Metered poetic passage
- stanzaPoem's line grouping
- rhymeMatching terminal sounds
- meterDevice that measures usage
- sonnetFourteen-line metered poem
ode · elegy · ballad · epic · couplet · quatrain · iambic · imagery
Out-of-the-park hit
- druidsCeltic spiritual leaders
- griotsHereditary oral historians
- troubadoursMedieval lyric poet-musicians
- scaldsBurns with hot liquid
seers · oracles · oral tradition · lyres · harps · epics · mythology · prophecy
verse
Metered poetic passage
sonnet · ode · elegy · ballad · epic · couplet · quatrain · iambic · imagery · alliteration
homer
Out-of-the-park hit
- druidsCeltic spiritual leaders
- griotsHereditary oral historians
- troubadoursMedieval lyric poet-musicians
scalds · seers · oracles · oral tradition · lyres · harps · epics · mythology · prophecy · odes
storyteller
One who recounts tales
fabulist · chronicle · saga · legend · folklore · mythology · tale · fable · parable · allegory
lute
Pear-bodied fretted strings
harmony · ballad · serenade · minstrel · troubadour · balladeer · jongleur · gleeman · psaltery · rebec
- Greek LiteratureHomer, myths, Greek poetry, fables, Iliad
- Indian folklorefolktales, animal fables, trickster tales, folk traditions, moral stories
- medievalknights, castles, cathedral, kings, queens
- mythologyZeus, Apollo, Athena, Poseidon, Odin
- ancient pastimeschariot racing, Olympic Games, discus, javelin, boxing
- folk artstribal art, folk opera, folk theater, Celtic knotwork, Navajo weaving
bardsnovelists
Writers of long-form fiction
technical writers · stenographers · essayists · journalists · copywriters
bardsphilistines
Uncultured, materialistic people
hacks · peasants · scribblers · laborers · drudges
bardsmutes
Silences or softens
stammerers · illiterates · babblers · hacks · mumblers
- The BardStratford's legendary dramatist
- bardic songsPerformed poetry of minstrels
- Bard of AvonEpithet for famous playwright
- medieval bardWandering musician-poet of antiquity