The original concept of Bards refers to medieval Gaelic and British culture, a bard was a professional story teller, verse-maker and music composer, employed by a patron (such as a monarch or noble) from around the 8th century.
In more recent usages of the word, it referred to famous playwrights or writers like Shakespeare or Tagore.
In nowadays 21th century it could be used to refer to Poets or Writers.