See irregular verbs in middle of poem (7)
I believe the answer is:
observe
'see' is the definition.
(I know that observe is a more specific form of fear)
'irregular verbs in middle of poem' is the wordplay.
'irregular' is an anagram indicator.
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'middle of' indicates the central letters.
The centre of 'poem' is 'oe'.
'verbs' anagrammed gives 'bserv'.
'bserv' put into 'oe' is 'OBSERVE'.
(Other definitions for observe that I've seen before include "Watch without intervening" , "Notice, perceive" , "taking notice" , "Keep an eye on" , "Verbose (anag.)" .)