Court welcoming north Italian poet (5)
I believe the answer is:
dante
'italian poet' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'court welcoming north' is the wordplay.
'court' becomes 'date' (romantically pursue).
'welcoming' indicates putting letters inside (in sense of 'inviting in').
'north' becomes 'n' ('N' can be a synonym of 'north').
'date' placed around 'n' is 'DANTE'.
(Other definitions for dante that I've seen before include "Thirteenth to fourteenth century Italian poet" , "Great Italian poet of 'The Divine Comedy'" , "Poet inspired by Beatrice" , "Thirteenth-fourteenth century Italian poet" , "Net Da a poet" .)