Who Was Shakespeare?

Using sources from Wikipedia, Transparent English Blog, and Wisegeek, I was able to gather some information on Shakespeare that intruiged me. According to these sites, Shakespeare was called "The Bard of Avon" in England and was regarded as the greatest writer in the English language. His main works consist of sonnets, plays, and poems. He produced most of them between 1589 and 1613. They were mainly tragedies and histories, his comedies were widely known. I could honestly go on and on about his personal life, early years, and so on and so forth, but as to getting down to what we students know about him, we interpret Shakespeare as a man who had written ingenious works that is vastly known even today. So, clearly everyone has a general idea of who he is and what he has done, that's for sure. But knowing the depth of his writing is the tricky part. I always found that challenging with Shakespeare's diction and syntax... being able to interpret what the characters are actually talking about. And so, it helps whenever we go through and analyze his works. Reading Hamlet and going over it is actually helping me understand the context better than compared to freshman year.