[$15 prize] Mini Crypto Challenge #1 - Do you have what it takes to break the code?

Paging all code breakers, puzzle fans, sleuths, hackers, smart-asses, wise guys and other smart alecks!

Inspired by Hive account@timsaid's Steemit Crypto Challenge, allow me to introduce:

The Mini Crypto Challenge #1

Welcome to the first part of (hopefully) a series of challenges, the purpose of which is to awaken you from your daily slumber and get some fresh blood flowing through that grey lump of matter you call a brain.

Designed to be not as hard as the original by Hive account@timsaid, the prize pool is also a little smaller. This week's first prize is $15, depending on the popularity I will adjust the prize of the next challenges.

So brew a fresh pot of coffee, grab some sugary snacks, and get cracking!

The rules:

• The first person to post the correct solution as a comment to this post is the winner
• Use any means necessary to decipher the hints and find the solution
• Posting hints, hunches and wild guesses is encouraged and -if correct- will be rewarded
• Liquid reward on this post goes directly to the prize pool of the next challenge
• Two random resteemers will also be rewarded
• Have fun!

The challenge

God, I wonder what ??? is supposed to be

I emulate stepfather's poems
Big hens bang on a dragonfly
AA loses a muscular humanist
I exhale a goldfish or tuna
A pig grazed for amity
Cross-hoofed souls!
???

The hints

Good luck!

Update:
The following information has been unlocked so far:

• Correct hints from the image: Wellesley (3), Green (4), Electra (5), Seventh Seal (7)
• Searching for the hints unlocks a clue towards the final solution. You'll know the clue when you find the number 1417
• Each line of the original problem is to be dissected independently to figure out the seventh line
• Anagrams are involved.

Update 2:
We've got a winner!!

Stay tuned for part 2!