Would-be poet met merry with sherry! (9)
I believe the answer is:
rhymester
'would-be poet' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'met merry with sherry' is the wordplay.
'merry with' indicates an anagram (merry can mean drunk).
'met' anagrammed with 'sherry' can make 'RHYMESTER'.
(Other definitions for rhymester that I've seen before include "Writer of short poems" , "Inferior poet" , "Would-be poet" , "mediocre poet" , "Poor poet" .)