Figure doing poet harm? (8)
I believe the answer is:
metaphor
'figure' is the definition.
(figure of speech)
'doing poet harm?' is the wordplay.
'doing' indicates anagramming the letters (doing can mean solving or working out).
'poet'+'harm'='poetharm'
'poetharm' anagrammed gives 'METAPHOR'.
(Other definitions for metaphor that I've seen before include "Common figure of speech" , "Top harem is a figure of speech" , "Figure of speech suggesting something really is what it resembles" , "To hamper, badly, a figure of speech" , "7/16 [FIGURE OF SPEECH]" .)