Artist runs into elegant youths; they are quintessentially straight (7)
I believe the answer is:
ramrods
'quintessentially straight' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this definition defines the answer.
'artist runs into elegant youths they' is the wordplay.
'artist' becomes 'RA' (Royal Academician, member of Royal Academy of Arts).
'runs' becomes 'r' (cricket abbreviation).
'into' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'elegant youths they' becomes 'mods' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'r' going within 'mods' is 'mrods'.
'ra'+'mrods'='RAMRODS'
'are' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for ramrods that I've seen is " Gunners' tools".)