Start of tribute about stupid Italian poet (5)
I believe the answer is:
tasso
'italian poet' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'start of tribute about stupid' is the wordplay.
'start of' suggests taking the first letters.
'about' is a reversal indicator.
'stupid' becomes 'ossa' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
The first letter of 'tribute' is 't'.
'ossa' in reverse letter order is 'asso'.
't'+'asso'='TASSO'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for tasso that I've seen before include "Torquato -, sixteenth century Italian poet" , "Torquato -, nineteenth century Italian poet" , "Torquato --, Italian poet of the 16th-century" .)