Crossword clues for poetaster
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Poetaster \Po"et*as`ter\, n. An inferior rhymer, or writer of verses; a dabbler in poetic art.
The talk of forgotten poetasters.
--Macaulay.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1590s, from Middle French poetastre (1550s), from Latin poeta (see poet) + -aster, diminutive (pejorative) suffix. Old Norse had skaldfifl "poetaster."
Wiktionary
n. An unskilled poet.
Wikipedia
Poetaster , like rhymester or versifier, is a derogatory term applied to bad or inferior poets. Specifically, poetaster has implications of unwarranted pretentions to artistic value. The word was coined in Latin by Erasmus in 1521. It was first used in English by Ben Jonson in his 1600 play Cynthia's Revels; immediately afterwards Jonson chose it as the title of his 1601 play The Poetaster. In that play the "poetaster" character is a satire on John Marston, one of Jonson's rivals in the Poetomachia or War of the Theatres.
Usage examples of "poetaster".
I heard that this shameless profligate, this paltry poetaster, had been named poet to the emperor.
In my time epigrammatists and poetasters who assailed ministers or even the king's mistresses were sent to the Bastille, but the wits still persisted in being amusing, and there were some who considered a jest incomplete that was not followed by a prosecution.
I heard that this shameless profligate, this paltry poetaster, had been named poet to the emperor.
From this ignorance in some, and vanity in others, we see the monthly and diurnal publications abounding with ballads, odes, elegies, epitaphs, and allegories, the non-descript ephemera from the heated brains of self-important poetasters, all ushered into notice under the appellation of SONNET!
Usually there was no review, poetry being left to accumulate in literary editors' offices until there was enough of it for one expert to do a single clean sweep in a grudging brief article, everybody -- Enderby, poetesses, poetasters, Sir George Goodby -- all fluffed up together.
How can a bunch of perfumed poetasters like the haut-lords buffalo whole ghem-armies?
She had numberless works dedicated to her, and sonnets without end addressed to her by all the poetasters of Europe, under the name of Lindonira or Calista.