In seventeenth-century Isfahan, poetry could be heard everywhere, from the shops of craftsman to the homes of the nobility, and members of all social classes tried their hand at composing verses. But the very prevalence of poetry threatened to make it commonplace and reduce it to a leisurely pastime, posing a formidable problem for a writer pursuing a vocation as a literary artist. No poet faced this challenge with greater determination or success than Sā’eb Tabrizi (d. 1676). This talk examines the social practice of poetry in Safavid Isfahan and shows how Sā’eb fashioned his career and his public persona to achieve his position as the preeminent poet of not only Isfahan, but the larger Persianate world.