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Clever indeed. I suppose whether you look at the misprints or the replacements, you stop as soon as you find something!

I'm still puzzled by the five 'extra' words. Presumably the reference to 'jumbled' in the preamble suggests that the significance belongs not to the extra word in the clue but to an anagram of it? All of mine have anagrams but I can't connect them particularly to the poem. Or is it just the act of removal that matters?

Midgers, four of the words can be rearranged to form words that are synonyms of the word created from the corrections to misprints.

As I said earlier, I don't understand the relevance of the fifth extra word, which I'm assuming is in 14d.

It is Dryden, and if you take the obvious (only) anagram check its last definition in Chambers ... I nearly missed it.

Apologies there are 2 anagrams - the one beginning with N!

Thanks, s_pugh. Not sure how I missed that since I did check both anagrams.

After everything is finished, I think there is an unintended error in the grid. I have checked several references to the poem on the internet and they all agree on the poet's spelling of a 7-letter word appearing in the top row. I would be surprised if that is intended. Or perhaps there are other versions of the poem with that word spelled the way it is in the grid. It does not change the validity of the instructions; it just reduces the number of words of the theme by one. Since we are not asked to highlight those words, this will not affect solutions.

I am a bit surprised that two other words of the theme did not appear, since you get real words by applying the same exchange used everywhere else.

I don't have an issue with any of the words from the theme. All seems straightforward once the theme is understood.

The version given in the ODQ has the spelling used by Artix - and I think the constraints imposed by the theme would have made too hard to fit in much more, so well done to him!

I've only just started this after a day in the garden. To be honest I nearly gave up when I read the preamble but I was spurred on by the posts here that indicate that it's not as bad as it looks. I'm making progress in the SE corner but have now ground to a halt. Can anyone confirm for me if there is an extra word in 16d?

yes Planks, there is - hope you didn't meet it in the garden...