Musical direction by an Italian poet (7)
I believe the answer is:
andante
'musical direction' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'by an italian poet' is the wordplay.
'by' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'italian poet' becomes 'Dante' (Dante Alighieri).
'an' put next to 'dante' is 'ANDANTE'.
(Other definitions for andante that I've seen before include "moving steadily" , "Musically, in moderately slow time" , "Moderately slow musical passage" , "Moderately slow (mus.)" , "not hurrying from bar to bar" .)