English poet composed sonnet about US city (8)
I believe the answer is:
tennyson
'english poet' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'composed sonnet about us city' is the wordplay.
'composed' indicates anagramming the letters.
'about' indicates putting letters inside.
'us city' becomes 'ny' (I've seen this in other clues**).
'sonnet' is an anagram of 'tenson'.
'tenson' going around 'ny' is 'TENNYSON'.
(Other definitions for tennyson that I've seen before include "Poet who wrote The Lady of Shalott" , "Alfred Lord . . . . . . . . great English poet" , "Great Victorian" , "Give Sonny ten for the odd old poet" , "British poet" .)