Poetic players in cradle oddly dismissed (7)
I believe the answer is:
lyrical
'poetic' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'players in cradle oddly dismissed' is the wordplay.
'oddly dismissed' indicates alternate letters (odd-numbered letters get removed).
'players'+'in'+'cradle'='playersincradle'
The alternating letters of 'playersincradle' are 'LYRICAL'.
(Other definitions for lyrical that I've seen before include "it can be waxed" , "Using poetic or song-like language" , "carried away" , "Relating to song's words" , "To wax - is to enthuse" .)