Merit of French verse perhaps (7)
I believe the answer is:
deserve
'merit' is the definition.
(I know that merit can be written as deserve)
'of french verse perhaps' is the wordplay.
'of french' becomes 'de' ('of' in French).
'perhaps' indicates an anagram.
'verse' with letters rearranged gives 'serve'.
'de'+'serve'='DESERVE'
(Other definitions for deserve that I've seen before include "Merit (something)" , "Be worth" , "Merit, earn" , "Warrant" , "Severed (anag)" .)