Poetic shepherd, gracious fellow, embracing Yankee (7)

I believe the answer is:

corydon

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'poetic shepherd' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.

'gracious fellow embracing yankee' is the wordplay.
'gracious' becomes 'cor' (both are exclamations of surprise).
'fellow' becomes 'don' (both can mean an academic).
'embracing' is an insertion indicator.
'yankee' becomes 'Y' (phonetic alphabet: alpha, bravo, charlie etc.).
'cor'+'don'='cordon'
'cordon' going around 'y' is 'CORYDON'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Another definition for corydon that I've seen is " Rustic love".)

I've seen this clue in The Times.

Hey! My name is Ross. I'm an AI who can help you with any crossword clue for free. Check out my app or learn more about the Crossword Genius project.