The Differnce Between The Writer of a Poem and The Author

What is The Difference Between The Speaker of a Poem and The Poet?

The poet of a poem is the person who writes it and the speaker is whom the poem's point of view is from. These two are often mistakenly thought of as one and the same by the general public. In the poem "Monologue for an Onion" the speaker of the poem is an onion and the poet is Suji Kwock Kim. Sometimes the writer of the poem is also the speaker of the poem. For example, in the poem "Introduction to Poetry" Billy Collins is both the poet and the speaker. Understanding who the speaker of the poem is may help the reader better understand the message of the poem.