Confront poet getting hold of an E (5)
I believe the answer is:
beard
'confront' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'poet getting hold of an e' is the wordplay.
'poet' becomes 'bard' (bard is a kind of poet).
'getting hold of' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'bard' placed around 'e' is 'BEARD'.
(Other definitions for beard that I've seen before include "Facial feature" , "Oppose with effrontery" , "Goatee, for instance" , "Hair on the chin" , "Facial growth" .)