Poet's work ethic initially given a lift (5)
I believe the answer is:
eliot
'poet's' is the definition.
(TS Eliot)
'work ethic initially given a lift' is the wordplay.
'work' becomes 'toil' (toiling is a kind of working**).
'initially' says to take the initial letters.
'given a lift' says the letters should be written in reverse.
The initial letter of 'ethic' is 'e'.
'toil'+'e'='toile'
'toile' in reverse letter order is 'ELIOT'.
(Other definitions for eliot that I've seen before include "T.S. --, poet" , "The Waste Land author" , "T S . . . . . wrote ''The Waste Land''" , "Author of Adam Bede, d.1880" , "See 14" .)