释义 |
poetaster|pəʊɪˈtæstə(r)| [a. med. or mod.L. poētaster (Erasmus Let. 25 Mar. 1521), in It. and Sp. poetastro, obs. F. poetastre (1554 in Sainte-Palaye): see poet and -aster.] A petty or paltry poet; a writer of poor or trashy verse; a rimester.
1599B. Jonson Cynthia's Rev. ii. i, Madam Moria..is like one of your ignorant poetasters of the time. 1601― (title) The Poetaster; or, His Arraignment. 1603Florio Montaigne ii. xvii. (1632) 359, I know a Poetaster, gainst whom both weake and strong,..affirme and say, he hath no skil or judgement in Poesie. 1664Butler Hud. ii. iii. 358 Besides all this, He serv'd his Master In quality of Poetaster: And Rhimes appropriate could make, To ev'ry month in th' Almanack. 1762–71Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Paint. (1786) III. 15 One Robert Whitehall, a poetaster of that age, wrote a poem called Urania, or a description of the painting at the top of the Theatre at Oxford. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. iii. I. 369 An envious poetaster demonstrated that Venice Preserved ought to have been hooted from the stage. 1883J. Hawthorne Dust I. 201 There are always poetasters enough; but of great poets..there are never so many as not to leave room for one or two more. Hence (nonce-wds.) poeˈtastering n. and a., acting the poetaster, composing poor or feeble verse; poeˈtasterism, poeˈtastery, -try, the work of a poetaster, feeble verse or versification; poeˈtastress, a female poetaster; poeˈtastric, -ical (also, erroneously, poetastic, -tical) adjs., of, pertaining to, or of the nature of, a poetaster.
1695Cotton tr. Martial ii. lxxxvi. (1860) 127 Make not the echo in my verses play, After the Grecian poetastering way! 1823Blackw. Mag. XIII. 645 Examples..drawn from Italianized poetasterisms. 1830Mackintosh Rev. of 1688, Wks. 1846 II. 223 Mrs. Behn, a loose and paltry poetastress of that age. 1833Fraser's Mag. VIII. 38 Fitzgerald is insulted as much for his politics as his poetastery. 1845Thackeray Crit. Rev. Wks. 1886 XXIII. 83 Away with all poetastering at dinner-parties. 1858N.Y. Tribune 13 Feb. 4/4 May some good genius save them from such poetastical platitudes! 1864Webster, Poetastry. 1867W. C. Hazlitt Offspring Th. in Solit. (1884) 232 The foregoing proverbial poemet or poetastrical proverb. 1893Temple Bar Mag. XCIX. 295 His father thought his poetastic mother a fool. 1894Blackw. Mag. Aug. 205 No more poetry or even poetastery for me. |