To whom does The Swan of Avon refer?

To William Shakespeare, the son of John Shakespeare, a dealer in wool and leather, who lived in Stratford-upon-Avon. In this town standing on the banks of the River Avon in Warwickshire, was born in April 1564, the boy who was to win immortal fame as the world’s greatest dramatist, the good friend of nobles and the wonder of his and every age.

This gentle man of immeasurable genius has, thought the hundreds of years since he died on April 23, 1616, been unmatched as a poet and playwright. Often refered to in the words of his great friend Ben Jonson as “The Swan of Avon,” William Shakespeare is England’s greatest gift to the literature of the world.