Essay covering old kind of literary work (7)
I believe the answer is:
tragedy
'kind of literary work' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't see how they can define each other.
'essay covering old' is the wordplay.
'essay' becomes 'try' (synonyms).
'covering' is an insertion indicator.
'old' becomes 'aged' (similar in meaning).
'try' enclosing 'aged' is 'TRAGEDY'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for tragedy that I've seen before include "story ending unhappily" , "Drama genre" , "King Lear, perhaps" , "Hamlet, say" , "Terribly sad thing" .)