French poet's always less restrained (5)
I believe the answer is:
freer
'less restrained' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'french poet's always' is the wordplay.
'french' becomes 'fr'.
'poet's always' becomes 'eer' ('e'er' is a poetic term for 'ever' or 'always').
'fr'+'eer'='FREER'
(Other definitions for freer that I've seen before include "Less constrained" , "less inhibited" , "Less restricted" , "More at liberty, less restrained" .)