Terribly sad poet holding fifty little wrigglers (8)
I believe the answer is:
tadpoles
'little wrigglers' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both animals as well as being plural nouns.
Perhaps they are linked in a way I don't understand?
'terribly sad poet holding fifty' is the wordplay.
'terribly' indicates an anagram.
'holding' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'fifty' becomes 'L' (Roman numeral).
'sad'+'poet'='sadpoet'
'sadpoet' with letters rearranged gives 'tadpoes'.
'tadpoes' going around 'l' is 'TADPOLES'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for tadpoles that I've seen before include "Little swimmers" , "Young frogs" , "Baby frogs" , "Immature frogs" , "Larval frogs" .)