poetastern.
/ˌpəʊᵻˈtastə/, /ˈpəʊᵻtastə/, /ˌpəʊᵻˈteɪstə/, /ˈpəʊᵻteɪstə/, U.S. /ˈpoʊəˌtæstər/ An inferior poet; a writer of poor or trashy verse; a mere versifier.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > poetry > poet > [noun] > minor poet or poetaster
rhymera1500
versifier1531
rhythmer1577
rhymester1593
poetizer1599
jingler1600
penny poet1600
poetaster1601
verser?1611
versemonger1634
poetitoa1637
foot poet1641
verseman1652
sonneteer1667
tinkler1689
verse-wright1729
rhymist1763
bardling1813
coupleteer1818
verse-smith1820
poetling1830
versicler1860
bardlet1867
poeticule1872
poetast1892
1601 B. Jonson Fountaine of Selfe-love ii. iv. sig. E2 Madam Moria..is like one of your Ignorant Poëtasters of the time. View more context for this quotation
1602 B. Jonson (title) Poetaster or the arraignment.
1603 J. Florio tr. M. de Montaigne Ess. ii. xvii. 369 I knowe a Poetaster, gainst whome both weake and strong,..affirme and say, he hath no skill or judgement in Poesie.
1664 S. Butler Hudibras: Second Pt. ii. iii. 157 Beside all this, He serv'd his Master, In quality of Poetaster: And Rimes appropriate could make, To ev'ry month, in th' Almanack.
1720 J. Swift Let. to Young Poet (1721) 31 A Multitude of Poetasters, Poetito's, Parcel-Poets..and Philo-Poets.
1774 A. Gerard Ess. Genius i. iii. 56 The laboured delineations of a poetaster, who would supply the want of genuine fancy by the industry of observation.
1801 Port Folio 14 Mar. 84/3 ‘It offends me to the soul,’ to hear a petty poetaster ring his changes upon borrowed bells.
1883 J. 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.
1957 V. Nabokov Pnin vi. 157 Roy Thayer..had squandered a decade of gray life on an erudite work dealing with a forgotten group of unnecessary poetasters.
1991 Classical Rev. 41 524 Teachers..will have to balance the merits of this anthology: a useful foretaste of later delights, or a ragbag for a poetaster?
Derivatives
poeˈtastering adj. and n. rare †(a) adj. resembling or emulating the work of a poetaster (obsolete); (b) n. behaviour characteristic of a poetaster, the composition of poor or feeble verse.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > poetry > poem or piece of poetry > bad poem or doggerel poem > [adjective] > composing bad verse
poetastering1695
poetasting1969
society > leisure > the arts > literature > poetry > poem or piece of poetry > bad poem or doggerel poem > [noun] > writing of bad verse
versemongery1836
poetastering1845
worsification1849
versemongering1875
1695 C. Cotton tr. Martial Epigr. ii. lxxxvi. 59 Make not the Eccho in my Verses play, After the Grecian Poetastring way.
1845 W. M. Thackeray in Fraser's Mag. Nov. 588/2 Away with all poetastering at dinner-parties.
2004 Re: Still out on Lim in rec.arts.poems (Usenet newsgroup) 27 May No amount of poetastering is going to save you from the failure that you've made of your life.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > poetry > poem or piece of poetry > bad poem or doggerel poem > [noun] > bad or doggerel poetry
doggerel1630
crambo1697
rhymery1822
poetasterism1823
poetastery1833
canicular1872
1823 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. 13 645 Examples..drawn from Italianized poetasterisms.
poeˈtastric adj. rare = poetastrical adj.
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1907 N.E.D. at Poetaster Poetastric.
poeˈtastrical adj. rare characteristic of, or of the nature of, a poetaster.
ΚΠ
1867 W. C. Hazlitt Offspring Thought (1884) 232 The foregoing proverbial poemet or poetastrical proverb.
1991 Hartford (Connecticut) Courant (Nexis) 1 Nov. b5 A sort of Southern Addams family portrait, with Ladd caricaturing an intellectual and Duvall sending up the poetastrical upper-class charmer.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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