Taking over trashy mag, failed poet (6,4)

I believe the answer is:

thomas gray

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'taking over trashy mag' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I cannot tell whether it can be defined by this definition.

'failed poet' is the wordplay.
'failed' becomes 'thomas' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'poet' becomes 'gray' (t8th-century poet Thomas Gray).
'thomas'+'gray'='THOMAS GRAY'

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