Chastise first poet to depict modern scourge (5)

'chastise first' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I cannot judge whether it can be defined by this definition.

'poet to depict modern scourge' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'poet' could be 'ovid' (Roman poet) and 'ovid' is located in the answer.
A single letter 'c' remains which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?