RHAPSODIST (ραψῶδός, from ράπτω, I string together, and ᾠδός, a song), is strictly one who strings songs together, and is usually applied to a class of persons who earned their living by reciting the poems of Homer. These poems came accordingly to be divided into certain lengths called rhapsodies,—that is, lays, fyttes, or cantos. (Liddell and Scott's Lexicon.) In modern usage, the rhapsodist is one who composes rhapsodies, or collections of thoughts into a new whole, without any natural connection or necessary dependence.