The French poet initially gets permits (4)
I believe the answer is:
lets
'permits' is the definition.
('let' can be a synonym of 'permit')
'the french poet initially gets' is the wordplay.
'the french' becomes 'les' (plural form of 'the' in French).
'poet initially' becomes 't' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'gets' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'les' enclosing 't' is 'LETS'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for lets that I've seen before include "Permits" , "Yes" , "Allows or causes to" , "we shall serve them again!" , "Rents out or allows" .)