People laugh before Roman poet (6)
I believe the answer is:
horace
'roman poet' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'people laugh before' is the wordplay.
'people' becomes 'race' (people can mean a national group or race).
'laugh' becomes 'ho' (representation of a laughing sound).
'before' says to put letters next to each other.
'race' put after 'ho' is 'HORACE'.
(Other definitions for horace that I've seen before include "Boy's name - Roman poet" , "Roman lyric poet, d.8BC -- a chore (anag)" , "Odist" , "Roman poet and satirist" , "Latin ode writer" .)