Library / English Dictionary

POET

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A writer of poems (the term is usually reserved for writers of good poetry)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("poet" is a kind of...):

author; writer (writes (books or stories or articles or the like) professionally (for pay))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "poet"):

bard (a lyric poet)

elegist (the author of a mournful poem lamenting the dead)

odist (a poet who writes odes)

poetess (a woman poet)

poet laureate (the poet officially appointed to the royal household in Great Britain)

poet laureate (a poet who is unofficially regarded as holding an honorary position in a particular group or region)

sonneteer (a poet who writes sonnets)

Instance hyponyms:

Alcaeus (Greek lyric poet of Lesbos; reputed inventor of Alcaic verse (611-580 BC))

Apollinaire; Guillaume Apollinaire; Wilhelm Apollinaris de Kostrowitzki (French poet; precursor of surrealism (1880-1918))

Arnold; Matthew Arnold (English poet and literary critic (1822-1888))

Arp; Hans Arp; Jean Arp (Alsatian artist and poet who was cofounder of dadaism in Zurich; noted for abstract organic sculptures (1887-1966))

Auden; W. H. Auden; Wystan Hugh Auden (United States poet (born in England) (1907-1973))

Baudelaire; Charles Baudelaire; Charles Pierre Baudelaire (a French poet noted for macabre imagery and evocative language (1821-1867))

Benet; Stephen Vincent Benet (United States poet; brother of William Rose Benet (1898-1943))

Blake; William Blake (visionary British poet and painter (1757-1827))

Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Blok; Alexander Alexandrovich Blok; Blok (Russian poet (1880-1921))

Boccaccio; Giovanni Boccaccio (Italian poet (born in France) (1313-1375))

Anne Bradstreet; Anne Dudley Bradstreet; Bradstreet (poet in colonial America (born in England) (1612-1672))

Bertolt Brecht; Brecht (German dramatist and poet who developed a style of epic theater (1898-1956))

Brooke; Rupert Brooke (English lyric poet (1887-1915))

Browning; Elizabeth Barrett Browning (English poet best remembered for love sonnets written to her husband Robert Browning (1806-1861))

Browning; Robert Browning (English poet and husband of Elizabeth Barrett Browning noted for his dramatic monologues (1812-1889))

Burns; Robert Burns (celebrated Scottish poet (1759-1796))

Butler; Samuel Butler (English poet (1612-1680))

Byron; Lord George Gordon Byron; Sixth Baron Byron of Rochdale (English romantic poet notorious for his rebellious and unconventional lifestyle (1788-1824))

Calderon; Calderon de la Barca; Pedro Calderon de la Barca (Spanish poet and dramatist considered one of the great Spanish writers (1600-1681))

Carducci; Giosue Carducci (Italian poet considered the national poet of modern Italy (1835-1907))

Carew; Thomas Carew (Englishman and Cavalier poet whose lyric poetry was favored by Charles I (1595-1639))

Catullus; Gaius Valerius Catullus (Roman lyric poet remembered for his love poems to an aristocratic Roman woman (84-54 BC))

Chaucer; Geoffrey Chaucer (English poet remembered as author of the Canterbury Tales (1340-1400))

Ciardi; John Anthony Ciardi; John Ciardi (United States poet and critic (1916-1986))

Coleridge; Samuel Taylor Coleridge (English romantic poet (1772-1834))

Corneille; Pierre Corneille (French tragic dramatist whose plays treat grand moral themes in elegant verse (1606-1684))

Cowper; William Cowper (English poet who wrote hymns and poetry about nature (1731-1800))

Crane; Harold Hart Crane; Hart Crane (United States poet (1899-1932))

Cynewulf; Cynwulf (Anglo-Saxon poet (circa 9th century))

Dante; Dante Alighieri (an Italian poet famous for writing the Divine Comedy that describes a journey through Hell and purgatory and paradise guided by Virgil and his idealized Beatrice (1265-1321))

de la Mare; Walter de la Mare; Walter John de la Mare (English poet remembered for his verse for children (1873-1956))

Dickinson; Emily Dickinson (United States poet noted for her mystical and unrhymed poems (1830-1886))

Donne; John Donne (English clergyman and metaphysical poet celebrated as a preacher (1572-1631))

Dryden; John Dryden (the outstanding poet and dramatist of the Restoration (1631-1700))

Eliot; T. S. Eliot; Thomas Stearns Eliot (British poet (born in the United States) who won the Nobel prize for literature; his plays are outstanding examples of modern verse drama (1888-1965))

Edward Fitzgerald; Fitzgerald (English poet remembered primarily for his free translation of the poetry of Omar Khayyam (1809-1883))

Frost; Robert Frost; Robert Lee Frost (United States poet famous for his lyrical poems on country life in New England (1874-1963))

Frederico Garcia Lorca; Garcia Lorca; Lorca (Spanish poet and dramatist who was shot dead by Franco's soldiers soon after the start of the Spanish Civil War (1898-1936))

Gilbert; Sir William Gilbert; William Gilbert; William S. Gilbert; William Schwenk Gilbert (a librettist who was a collaborator with Sir Arthur Sullivan in a famous series of comic operettas (1836-1911))

Allen Ginsberg; Ginsberg (United States poet of the beat generation (1926-1997))

Goethe; Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (German poet and novelist and dramatist who lived in Weimar (1749-1832))

Gongora; Luis de Gongora y Argote (a Spanish poet whose work was characterized by an affected elegance of style (1561-1627))

Gray; Thomas Gray (English poet best known for his elegy written in a country churchyard (1716-1771))

Herrick; Robert Herrick (English lyric poet (1591-1674))

Hesiod (Greek poet whose existing works describe rural life and the genealogies of the gods and the beginning of the world (eighth century BC))

Hoffmannsthal; Hugo von Hoffmannsthal (German poet who wrote libretti for operas by Richard Strauss (1874-1929))

Hogg; James Hogg (Scottish writer of rustic verse (1770-1835))

Homer (ancient Greek epic poet who is believed to have written the Iliad and the Odyssey (circa 850 BC))

Gerard Manley Hopkins; Hopkins (English poet (1844-1889))

Horace (Roman lyric poet said to have influenced English poetry (65-8 BC))

A. E. Housman; Alfred Edward Housman; Housman (English poet (1859-1936))

Edward James Hughes; Hughes; Ted Hughes (English poet (born in 1930))

Hugo; Victor-Marie Hugo; Victor Hugo (French poet and novelist and dramatist; leader of the romantic movement in France (1802-1885))

Henrik Ibsen; Henrik Johan Ibsen; Ibsen (realistic Norwegian author who wrote plays on social and political themes (1828-1906))

Jarrell; Randall Jarrell (United States poet (1914-1965))

Jeffers; John Robinson Jeffers; Robinson Jeffers (United States poet who wrote about California (1887-1962))

Jimenez; Juan Ramon Jimenez (Spanish lyric poet (1881-1958))

Ben Jonson; Benjamin Jonson; Jonson (English dramatist and poet who was the first real poet laureate of England (1572-1637))

Erik Axel Karlfeldt; Karlfeldt (Swedish poet whose works incorporate Swedish customs and folklore (1864-1931))

John Keats; Keats (Englishman and romantic poet (1795-1821))

Francis Scott Key; Key (United States lawyer and poet who wrote a poem after witnessing the British attack on Baltimore during the War of 1812; the poem was later set to music and entitled 'The Star-Spangled Banner' (1779-1843))

Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock; Klopstock (German poet (1724-1803))

Lindsay; Nicholas Vachel Lindsay; Vachel Lindsay (United States poet who traveled the country trading his poems for room and board (1879-1931))

Li Po (Chinese lyric poet (700-762))

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; Longfellow (United States poet remembered for his long narrative poems (1807-1882))

Lovelace; Richard Lovelace (English poet (1618-1857))

Amy Lowell; Lowell (United States poet (1874-1925))

Lowell; Robert Lowell; Robert Traill Spence Lowell Jr. (United States poet (1917-1977))

Lucretius; Titus Lucretius Carus (Roman philosopher and poet; in a long didactic poem he tried to provide a scientific explanation of the universe (96-55 BC))

Archibald MacLeish; MacLeish (United States poet (1892-1982))

Mallarme; Stephane Mallarme (French symbolist poet noted for his free verse (1842-1898))

Mandelshtam; Mandelstam; Osip Emilevich Mandelstam; Osip Mandelstam (Russian poet who died in a prison camp (1891-1938))

Giambattista Marini; Giambattista Marino; Marini; Marino (Italian poet (1569-1625))

Christopher Marlowe; Marlowe (English poet and playwright who introduced blank verse as a form of dramatic expression; was stabbed to death in a tavern brawl (1564-1593))

Jose Julian Marti; Marti (Cuban poet and revolutionary who fought for Cuban independence from Spain (1853-1895))

Martial (Roman poet noted for epigrams (first century BC))

Andrew Marvell; Marvell (English poet (1621-1678))

John Edward Masefield; John Masefield; Masefield (English poet (1878-1967))

Edgar Lee Masters; Masters (United States poet (1869-1950))

Mayakovski; Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovski (Soviet poet; leader of Russian futurism (1893-1930))

George Meredith; Meredith (English novelist and poet (1828-1909))

John Milton; Milton (English poet; remembered primarily as the author of an epic poem describing humanity's fall from grace (1608-1674))

Marianne Craig Moore; Marianne Moore; Moore (United States poet noted for irony and wit (1887-1872))

Moore; Thomas Moore (Irish poet who wrote nostalgic and patriotic verse (1779-1852))

Morris; William Morris (English poet and craftsman (1834-1896))

Alfred de Musset; Louis Charles Alfred de Musset; Musset (French poet and writer (1810-1857))

Neftali Ricardo Reyes; Neruda; Pablo Neruda; Reyes (Chilean poet (1904-1973))

Alfred Noyes; Noyes (English poet (1880-1958))

Omar Khayyam (Persian poet and mathematician and astronomer whose poetry was popularized by Edward Fitzgerald's translation (1050-1123))

Ovid; Publius Ovidius Naso (Roman poet remembered for his elegiac verses on love (43 BC - AD 17))

Francis Turner Palgrave; Palgrave (English poet (1824-1897))

Francesco Petrarca; Petrarca; Petrarch (an Italian poet famous for love lyrics (1304-1374))

Pindar (Greek lyric poet remembered for his odes (518?-438? BC))

Plath; Sylvia Plath (United States writer and poet (1932-1963))

Edgar Allan Poe; Poe (United States writer and poet (1809-1849))

Alexander Pope; Pope (English poet and satirist (1688-1744))

Ezra Loomis Pound; Ezra Pound; Pound (United States writer who lived in Europe; strongly influenced the development of modern literature (1885-1972))

Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin; Alexander Pushkin; Pushkin (Russian poet (1799-1837))

Jean Baptiste Racine; Jean Racine; Racine (French advocate of Jansenism; tragedian who based his works on Greek and Roman themes (1639-1699))

James Whitcomb Riley; Riley (United States poet (1849-1916))

Rainer Maria Rilke; Rilke (German poet (born in Austria) whose imagery and mystic lyricism influenced 20th-century German literature (1875-1926))

Arthur Rimbaud; Jean Nicholas Arthur Rimbaud; Rimbaud (French poet whose work influenced the surrealists (1854-1891))

Edwin Arlington Robinson; Robinson (United States poet; author of narrative verse (1869-1935))

Edmond Rostand; Rostand (French dramatist and poet whose play immortalized Cyrano de Bergerac (1868-1918))

Alan Seeger; Seeger (United States poet killed in World War I (1888-1916))

Anne Sexton; Sexton (United States poet (1928-1974))

Bard of Avon; Shakespeare; Shakspere; William Shakespeare; William Shakspere (English poet and dramatist considered one of the greatest English writers (1564-1616))

Percy Bysshe Shelley; Shelley (Englishman and romantic poet (1792-1822))

Shevchenko; Taras Grigoryevich Shevchenko (Ukranian poet (1814-1861))

Sidney; Sir Philip Sidney (English poet (1554-1586))

Shel Silverstein; Shelby Silverstein; Silverstein (United States poet and cartoonist remembered for his stories and poems for children (1932-1999))

Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell; Dame Edith Sitwell; Sitwell (English poet (1887-1964))

Robert Southey; Southey (English poet and friend of Wordsworth and Coleridge (1774-1843))

Sir Stephen Harold Spender; Spender; Stephen Spender (English poet and critic (1909-1995))

Edmund Spenser; Spenser (English poet who wrote an allegorical romance celebrating Elizabeth I in the Spenserian stanza (1552-1599))

Stevens; Wallace Stevens (United States poet (1879-1955))

Sir John Suckling; Suckling (English poet and courtier (1609-1642))

Algernon Charles Swinburne; Swinburne (English poet (1837-1909))

Arthur Symons; Symons (English poet (1865-1945))

Edmund John Millington Synge; J. M. Synge; John Millington Synge; Synge (Irish poet and playwright whose plays are based on rural Irish life (1871-1909))

Tasso; Torquato Tasso (Italian poet who wrote an epic poem about the capture of Jerusalem during the First Crusade (1544-1595))

Allen Tate; John Orley Allen Tate; Tate (United States poet and critic (1899-1979))

Sara Teasdale; Teasdale (United States poet (1884-1933))

Alfred Lord Tennyson; Alfred Tennyson; First Baron Tennyson; Tennyson (Englishman and Victorian poet (1809-1892))

Thespis (Greek poet who is said to have originated Greek tragedy (sixth century BC))

Dylan Marlais Thomas; Dylan Thomas; Thomas (Welsh poet (1914-1953))

John Trumbull; Trumbull (American satirical poet (1750-1831))

Samuel Rosenstock; Tristan Tzara; Tzara (French poet (born in Romania) who was one of the cofounders of the dada movement (1896-1963))

Johann Ludwig Uhland; Uhland (German romantic poet (1787-1862))

Paul Verlaine; Verlaine (French symbolist poet (1844-1896))

Francois Villon; Villon (French poet (flourished around 1460))

Publius Vergilius Maro; Vergil; Virgil (a Roman poet; author of the epic poem 'Aeneid' (70-19 BC))

Andrei Voznesenski; Voznesenski (Russian poet (born in 1933))

Robert Penn Warren; Warren (United States writer and poet (1905-1989))

Isaac Watts; Watts (English poet and theologian (1674-1748))

Phillis Wheatley; Wheatley (American poet (born in Africa) who was the first recognized Black writer in America (1753-1784))

Walt Whitman; Whitman (United States poet who celebrated the greatness of America (1819-1892))

John Greenleaf Whittier; Whittier (United States poet best known for his nostalgic poems about New England (1807-1892))

William Carlos Williams; Williams (United States poet (1883-1963))

William Wordsworth; Wordsworth (a romantic English poet whose work was inspired by the Lake District where he spent most of his life (1770-1850))

Sir Thomas Wyat; Sir Thomas Wyatt; Wyat; Wyatt (English poet who introduced the sonnet form to English literature (1503-1542))

Elinor Morton Hoyt Wylie; Wylie (United States poet (1885-1928))

W. B. Yeats; William Butler Yeats; Yeats (Irish poet and dramatist (1865-1939))

Yevgeni Aleksandrovich Yevtushenko; Yevgeni Yevtushenko; Yevtushenko (Russian poet who expressed the feelings of the post-Stalinist generation (born in 1933))

Edward Young; Young (English poet (1683-1765))

Derivation:

poetic (of or relating to poets)

poetise; poetize (compose verses or put into verse)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Every morning we held exactly this conversation: never any more, and never any less: and yet, invariably, however far I might have been lifted out of myself over-night, and advanced towards maturer years, by Steerforth's companionship, or Mrs. Steerforth's confidence, or Miss Dartle's conversation, in the presence of this most respectable man I became, as our smaller poets sing, a boy again.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Imagine her dismay, on stealing a glance of timid admiration at the poet whose lines suggested an ethereal being fed on 'spirit, fire, and dew', to behold him devouring his supper with an ardor which flushed his intellectual countenance.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Her pleasure in the walk must arise from the exercise and the day, from the view of the last smiles of the year upon the tawny leaves, and withered hedges, and from repeating to herself some few of the thousand poetical descriptions extant of autumn, that season of peculiar and inexhaustible influence on the mind of taste and tenderness, that season which had drawn from every poet, worthy of being read, some attempt at description, or some lines of feeling.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

I introduced Didymus and Eustathius to Homer, and prevailed on him to treat them better than perhaps they deserved, for he soon found they wanted a genius to enter into the spirit of a poet. But Aristotle was out of all patience with the account I gave him of Scotus and Ramus, as I presented them to him; and he asked them, whether the rest of the tribe were as great dunces as themselves?

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

This full moon of February 8-9 is in Leo, a sign that rules the arts and entertainment, including actors and musicians, artists, costume and set designers, poets, photographers, filmmakers, screenwriters—even lawyers who specialize in intellectual property for the entertainment industry.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

"There's a book, by a poet. Read it and keep it."

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I dare say you have heard those charming lines of the poet, We must not allow them to be verified in sweet Jane Fairfax.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

From the contents of the knapsack it was evident that this man had been an artist and poet in search of effects.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

These visions faded when I perused, for the first time, those poets whose effusions entranced my soul and lifted it to heaven.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Skiff Miller, cool and collected, the obstinate flush a trifle deeper on his forehead, his huge muscles bulging under the black cloth of his coat, carefully looked the poet up and down as though measuring the strength of his slenderness.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)