A poet may simply be the creator (thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or written), or they may also perform their art to an audience.
[citation needed] In Ancient Rome, professional poets were generally sponsored by patrons, including nobility and military officials.
[2] For instance, Gaius Cilnius Maecenas, friend to Caesar Augustus, was an important patron for the Augustan poets, including both Horace and Virgil.
In the Romantic period and onwards, many poets were independent writers who made their living through their work, often supplemented by income from other occupations or from family.
The sha'ir represented an individual tribe's prestige and importance in the Arabian Peninsula, and mock battles in poetry or zajal would stand in lieu of real wars.
[citation needed] Poets of earlier times were often well read and highly educated people while others were to a large extent self-educated.
A hymnographer such as Isaac Watts who wrote 700 poems in his lifetime, may have their lyrics sung by millions of people every Sunday morning, but are not always included in anthologies of poetry.
Because hymns are perceived of as "worship" rather than "poetry", the term "artistic kenosis" is sometimes used to describe the hymnographer's success in "emptying out" the instinct to succeed as a poet.