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poetaster
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.〔Erasmus, ''Letters'' 25 March 1521 (see ''Oxford English Dictionary'' s.v. "Poetaster").〕 It was first used in English by Ben Jonson in his 1600 play ''Cynthia's Revels'';〔Jonson, ''(Cynthia's Revels )'' act 2 scene 4.〕 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.〔''Ben Jonson'' ed. C. H. Herford, P. and E. Simpson, vol. 9 (Oxford, 1950) p. 533.〕
==Usage==
While ''poetaster'' has always been a negative appraisal of a poet's skills, ''rhymester'' (or ''rhymer'') and ''versifier'' have held ambiguous meanings depending on the commentator’s opinion of a writer's verse. ''Versifier'' is often used to refer to someone who produces work in verse with the implication that while technically able to make lines rhyme they have no real talent for poetry. Rhymer on the other hand is usually impolite despite attempts to salvage the reputation of rhymers such as the Rhymers' Club and Rhymer being a common last name.
The faults of a poetaster frequently include errors or lapses in their work's meter, badly rhyming words which jar rather than flow, oversentimentality, too much use of the pathetic fallacy and unintentionally bathetic choice of subject matter. Although a mundane subject in the hands of some great poets can be raised to the level of art, such as ''On First Looking into Chapman's Homer'' by John Keats or ''Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Gold Fishes'' by Thomas Gray, others merely produce bizarre poems on bizarre subjects, an example being James McIntyre, who wrote mainly of cheese.
Other poets often regarded as poetasters are William Topaz McGonagall, Julia A. Moore, Edgar Guest, Dmitry Khvostov, and Alfred Austin. Austin, despite having been a British poet laureate, is nevertheless regarded as greatly inferior to his predecessor, Alfred Lord Tennyson; he was regularly mocked during his career and is little read today. The American poet Joyce Kilmer (1886–1918), known for his 1913 poem "Trees", is often criticized for his overly sentimental and traditional verse written at the dawn of Modernist poetry, although some of his poems are frequently anthologized and retain enduring popular appeal.〔Holliday, Robert Cortes. "Memoir," in Joyce Kilmer, edited by Holliday (New York: Doran, 1918), I: 17–101.〕〔Aiken, Conrad Potter. “Confectionary and Caviar: Edward Bliss Reed, John Cowper Powys, Joyce Kilmer, Theodosia Garrison, William Carlos Williams,” in ''Scepticisms''. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1919), 178–86.〕 His poems, especially "Trees" has been parodied innumerable times, including a notable parody by humorist Ogden Nash.〔Nash, Ogden. "Song of the Open Road" first published in Argosy. Vol. 12 No. 8. (July 1951), 63.〕
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