Poles clutching box, say, after English courses (7)
I believe the answer is:
entrees
'courses' is the definition.
(entree is a kind of course)
'poles clutching box say after english' is the wordplay.
'poles' becomes 'NS' (north and south poles).
'clutching' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'box say' becomes 'tree' (box tree is a type of tree).
'after' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'english' becomes 'E' (abbreviation).
'ns' enclosing 'tree' is 'ntrees'.
'ntrees' put after 'e' is 'ENTREES'.
(Other definitions for entrees that I've seen before include "Main courses" , "Dishes" , "Admittance" .)