# Poet
## Overview
A **poet** is one who writes poetry — who uses language with heightened attention to sound, rhythm, imagery, and meaning. The word's etymology reveals something fundamental about the Western conception of literary art: a poet is a maker.
## Etymology
From Old French *poete*, from Latin *poeta*, from Greek *poiētēs* ('maker, author, poet'), from the verb *poiein* ('to make, create, compose, produce'). The PIE root is **\*kʷey-** ('to pile up, build, make').
The Greek word *poiētēs* is simply the agent noun of *poiein* ('to make') — a poet is, at root, 'a maker.' This is not metaphorical; it is the primary meaning. Greek distinguished between:
- *poiētēs*: one who makes (creates original compositions) - *rhapsōidos*: one who stitches songs together (a performer of existing works) - *aoidos*: a singer (one who performs orally)
By calling the composer a 'maker,' Greek culture placed creative production — the bringing into existence of something that did not exist before — at the center of poetic identity. A performer or reciter was something else.
This etymological fact was known and cherished throughout the Western literary tradition:
- **Scots**: The medieval Scots poets called themselves **makars** ('makers'). William Dunbar's *Lament for the Makaris* (c. 1505) uses the native equivalent of the Greek term. - **Sir Philip Sidney**: In *The Defence of Poesy* (1595), Sidney notes that the Greeks 'named him a maker, which name hath ... the highest estimation of learning.'
## Poiein and Poiesis
Greek *poiein* generated a core vocabulary for literary and creative activity:
- **Poetry**: from *poiēsis* ('making, creation') — the art of making with language - **Poem**: from *poiēma* ('a thing made') — a single created work - **Poetic**: from *poiētikos* ('productive, creative') — of or relating to poetry - **Poesy**: from *poiēsis* — an archaic synonym for poetry
In philosophy, **poiesis** has been adopted as a technical term for 'bringing into being' — creative production that results in an external product, as distinguished from *praxis* (action that is its own end). Heidegger used *poiesis* extensively in his philosophy of technology and art.
## Cultural Status
The poet's social role has varied enormously across cultures and periods. In archaic Greece, poets were considered divinely inspired — the Muses literally breathed words into them. Plato both revered and feared poets, ultimately banishing them from his ideal republic because their imitations could corrupt souls. In Rome, poets were clients of patrons. In medieval Europe, court
The tension between the poet as *maker* (a craftsperson who builds with language) and the poet as *seer* (a vessel for divine or unconscious inspiration) runs through the entire Western literary tradition.
## Related Forms
The family includes **poetry** (the art), **poem** (a single work), **poetic** (adjective), **poetics** (the theory of poetry), **poetess** (female poet, now largely disused), and **poet laureate** (an officially appointed national poet).