Crossword Genius

A little poem for Proust's girl? (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

odette

'proust's girl?' is the definition.
(character in novels by Marcel Proust)

'a little poem for' is the wordplay.
'a little' means to remove the last letter (the word is not quite complete).
'poem' becomes 'ode' (ode is a kind of poem).
'for' becomes 'ette' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'ode' with its last letter taken away is 'od'.
'od'+'ette'='ODETTE'

(Other definitions for odette that I've seen before include "Female character Swan Lake" , "1950 film about first female to receive George Cross" , "Part of Swan Lake" , "------ Churchill, French war heroine" , "Swan Lake role" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.
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