One who is especially gifted in the perception and expression of the beautiful or lyrical: "[the naturalist John Burroughs] was the bard of the bird feeder, the poet of the small and homey"(Bill McKibben).
[Middle English, from Old French poete, from Latin poēta, from Greek poiētēs, maker, composer, from poiein, to create; see kwei-2 in Indo-European roots.]
c.1300, from O.Fr. poete (12c.), from L. poeta "poet, author," from Gk. poetes "maker, author, poet," from poein "to make or compose," from PIE *kwoiwo- "making," from base *qwei- "to make" (cf. Skt. cinoti "heaping up, piling up," O.C.S. cinu "act, deed, order"). Replaced O.E. scop (which survives in scoff). Used in 14c., as in classical langs., for all sorts of writers or composers of works of literature.