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After reading the preamble I was expecting another long frustrating grid stare - but that was not to be. I regard finishing this as somewhat of a fluke, as I only have 4 each of the entries that are either too long or are jumbles. The misprints give a fairly hefty clue to the letters that need to be altered, and the bottom row an even bigger clue to the poet/poem.

Morning Gitto - I managed to find them (can't quite see how you couldn't get at least all 5 of the overlong ones as they lead to part of the theme!), but found this a bit of a slog, especially the SE corner.

I still can't parse the first 2 letters of one of the entries, but luckily the unchecked letter I was missing is confirmed by thematic material, although the parsing still eludes me. Just glad to crawl over the line frankly.

Hi, I too struggled with the SE corner, but that is when the PDM came and I stopped searching for the last overlong entry as everything fell into place on its own. No doubt I’ll look for it before long!

I also struggled to break into the SE corner.

Although I've finished I have a number of queries. Apart from a few parsing questions, I cannot find the misprint relevant to the first letter of the word that is presumably given by the misprints. I don't see the thematic relevance of the extra word in 28d, and I have an extra word in 14d, making a total of six extra words, not five.

Perhaps the word in 28d isn't extra, but a misprint, giving the letter I need. Not keen on that because the final word of the clue is sufficient as a definition.

dryden, the misprint belonging to the first letter of the word is in 8. And 28 is certainly also a misprint - I don't agree that the last word of the clue is a sufficient definition, I think you need the preceding (corrected) word to create the verbal phrase.

I, too, have six extra words including the one in 14. But I can't yet fully parse 39, so I suspect this may contain the one that isn't really 'extra' (not to mention the fact that it has no anagrams!)

Midgers, If the first letter of the word is provided by the misprint in 8 you have a different word to me. My word matches the unjumbled extra words (apart from one that I cannot fathom).

Given a nounal meaning in Chambers, I think the last word of 28 is sufficient as a definition.

39 is a normal clue, though admittedly a bit confusing. 'East-West' does not denote EW.

Well without giving away too much at this stage, would you agree that it's not exactly a 'word'? I have the same 'word' given by the misprinted letters and by the letters outside the grid.

We'll have to agree to disagree on 28. I would say that the last word may be responsible for producing the answer, but it isn't the same thing. The last two words, however, with the misprint corrected.....

Light has dawned on 39, many thanks. I fell straight into the EW trap!

I was bemused when I read that you had the same 'word' given by the misprinted letters and by the letters outside the grid, as I most definitely don't. But then I double checked and if you take the original letters for the misprints as opposed to the replacements then you are correct. The replacements spell out something very pertinent too. That was way too subtle for me!

Midgers, I now see what you meant in your earlier posting, and I realise I missed something, but it's not quite as simple as that. Clever stuff.