Poet with bad sonnet about New York (8)
I believe the answer is:
tennyson
'poet' is the definition.
(Alfred, Lord Tennyson)
'bad sonnet about new york' is the wordplay.
'bad' indicates an anagram.
'about' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'new york' becomes 'ny'.
'sonnet' with letters rearranged gives 'tenson'.
'tenson' enclosing 'ny' is 'TENNYSON'.
'with' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for tennyson that I've seen before include "writer" , "English nineteenth century poet (Maud)" , "Poet who wrote The Lady of Shalott" , "Poet Laureate after Wordsworth" , "linesman" .)