The difference between the speaker of a poem and the poet

The difference between the speaker of a poem and the poet.

The speaker of the poem is the point of view of a person/thing that the poem centers around.
The poet is the writer/author of the poem. Sometimes the speaker is very similar to the poet, but you can't always assume that when reading a poem. Confusing the speaker and the poet will most of the time be a complete disaster. For example if a poet named John Hughes wrote a poem about his marriage from his marriage from his wives perspective, and you assumed it is from his perspective then you would have trouble really understanding the poem. When going into a poem you should never assume who or what the speaker is.