Illogical to pay a poet thus? (8)
I believe the answer is:
perverse
'illogical' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'a poet thus?' is the wordplay.
'a' becomes 'per' (eg 'one a day' means 'one per day').
'poet thus?' becomes 'verse' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'per'+'verse'='PERVERSE'
'to pay' acts as a link.
This may not be right. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for perverse that I've seen before include "Deviant" , "Deliberately departing from what is reasonable" , "Obstinately wrong-headed" , "'Wayward, peevish (8)'" , "It's wrong" .)