1. Preface:
[1] This poem (IM 1) was published in Canadian Forum XII (April 1932) as no. XXI of "From the Dirge" in identical form. It is also present in the Notebook (NB 7). Changes are underlined in the text, and recorded below.

[2] NB 7: "like a".

[3] NB 7: "sleepers", and "lethargy -".

[4] NB 7: "Or like the", as also in st.2, l.1 and 3, and st.3, l.1.

[5] NB 7: "canopy -".

[6] NB 7: "bursting".

[7] NB 7: "have".

[8] NB 7: "life".

2. The Gods:
[9] This poem (IM 2) was published in Canadian Forum XII (April 1932) as no. III of "From the Dirge" with the following minor discrepancies: in the initial couplet, "gods" is followed by a [:] rather than a [;]. In the final quatrain, "so" in l. 1 features a [.] rather than a [!]; "Spider" in l. 3 is not capitalized, and "no meaning" in l. 4 reads "No-Meaning". Grove also chose IM 1 for his Selections (S 1).

[10] These unacknowledged lines are a quotation from Shakespeare's King Lear.

[11] This poem (IM 3) was the first published by Grove in Canadian Forum IX (March 1929) with minor changes in the last three stanzas. It is also mentioned in Grove's Letters in October, 1928 (p. 168).

[12] Mis-spelled in IM typescript: "gallwry". CF 1 has "gallery".

[13] Underlined in IM typescript, in italics in CF 1.

[14] CF 1: "Life within".

[15] CF 1 uses a colon here, & omits the comma in st.12,l.3.

[16] CF 1 does not capitalize "thee".

[17] CF 1: "to".

[18] This poem (IM 4) also exists as Confession in the Notebook (NB 30) with lexical discrepancies in each stanza. Part of the first line was chosen as title for essays by and about Grove in 1986: A Stranger to My Time.

[19] NB 30: "In creeds out-worn and cosmogonies dead", to rhyme in l. 4 with "its splendours fed."; l. 4 has "accept"; l. 4 reads: "On...its splendour fed."

[20] NB 30: "see", and "vaunted".

[21] NB 30: "Proves" (reading uncertain).

[22] NB 30 has "as a test".

[23] NB 30: "make".

[24] NB 30 uses a comma here; st. 4, l. 3 omitted the comma after "charity".

[25] NB 30: "And".

[26] NB 30 reads: "find in this blind...".

[27] NB 30: "do decline/To be mothered thus".

[28] NB 30: "barter, pence for pence;/And rather...".

[29] NB 30 reads "I should prefer my weakness to its strength/And".

[30] NB 30: "because I could demurely groan.".

[31] NB 30: "I would upon".

[32] NB 30: "sighing songs".

[33] NB 30: "A rebel, I would".

[34] This poem (IM 5) was published in Canadian Forum XII (April 1932) as no. IV of "From the Dirge" with the following discrepancies which are underlined here: in the second stanza, l. 4 "told" reads "taught"; in st. 3, l. 3 , "wrong" is followed by a [.] rather than a [;], and l. 4 reads "Forward they go..." rather than "But on they go..."; st. 4, l. 1 has no [,] after "gown". IM 5 was chosen by Grove for his Selections (S 2).

[35] Instead of an address, Grove used a variant of this line in a letter to his wife: "And thus the days go by, a long, long line..." (Letters, p.169, 7. 10. 1928).

[36] Grove include this poem (IM 6) in his Selections (S 3). -- In st. 9, l. 3 and 4, "Then" and "how" are underlined in the typescript.

[37] Ms. correction to mistyped "remores".

[38] Grove chose this poem (IM 7) for his Selections  (S 4) where it has the typed Roman numeral "VII".

[39] A line break may have been intended here, but is absent in both typescripts.

[40] Grove translated similar questions in his copy of Goethe's Poems (p. 205); see also nominalized questions in Greve's Herakles Farnese on p. 26.

[41] This poem (IM 8) is present in the Notebook (NB 9) with substantial corrections in stanza three. Grove chose it for his Selections (S 5).

[42] NB 9: "awing".

[43] Typescript has "wors".

[44] NB 9: ms. correction written below an illegible original; "its" reads "life's".

[45] NB 9: heavily corrected stanza, especially in the first three lines.

[46] NB 9: "I stop and look;" which is a ms. correction written above crossed-out "We grope and find."

[47] This poem (IM 9) was published in Canadian Forum XII (April 1932) as no. I of "From the Dirge", where it lacks stanza four. In three quite different versions, it is also present in the Notebook (NBLL 1) on the verso of a letter by Graphics Publishers which offers A Search for America (publ. Oct. 1927) to potential reviewers.

[48] Grove quoted these last two lines in exactly this form in a letter to Watson Kirkconnell in the context of reworking what became Fruits of the Earth in 1933 (Letters, p. 264, 24. 3. 1929).

[49] This poem (IM 10) is the first item in the Notebook; differences affect mainly punctuation. In st. 4, l.1 there is, however, a significant change in tense: "I was a rover bent..." reads "I am a rover bent..." in the manuscript. Lexical variants are underlined here in the text. Next to stanzas NB 1 there are metrical notations in the margin.

[50] NB 1: "bold".

[51] NB 1: "What then ensued, I pass."

[52] IM 11 is the second item in the Notebook; lexical differences are underlined here in the text. NB 2 has another st. 8 than IM 11, and lacks the reference to Rilke.

[53] The line break is intentional: it reflects both typed IM 11 and NB 2.

[54] NB 2: "the". St. 5, l. 4 reads "red".

[55] NB 2: written over crossed out "walk"; in l. 2: "Exhibiting".

[56] NB 2: "What others babbled"; st. 8, l. 1: "is"; l. 2: "This...message"; l. 4 "! And".

[57] Stanza written sideways along st. 7 and 8 in NB 2; it replaces ms. st. 8: "Yes, they are pressed. Pressed are they still for time/To do their nothings in; pressed are their pelts/To show no wrinkle; pressed, to look like prime,/Their haunches aged by corsets and by felts."

[58] NB 2: "this"; st. 10, l. 1: "mortal", and "no".

[59] NB 2: "I still stand", and "sight" in l. 2.

[60] This poem (IM 12) is present, without title, on three folded loose sheets in the Notebook (NBLL 4). There are substantial differences throughout, but especially in stanzas 3-4, 12, 17, 19- 20.

[61] Ms.: "star"

[62] Ms.: "Where though to rival with a mountain crag/We pile our buildingswith satiny slate,"; l. 4 "float awhile";

[63] Ms.: ", codified as 'laws':"; l. 2 "for quick reference".

[64] Ms. "Yet of the puzzling mystery that awes."

[65] Ms.: "The mystery and secret of our lives -- we found".

[66] Ms.: "answering"; l. 4 "from".

[67] Ms.: "Yet does a subtle, bitter irony/Pervade".

[68] Ms.: "moved"; l.2 "runs one of", and "bar"; l. 3 "His".

[69] Ms.: "rueing (?) the little". III, st. 3, l. 1"And".

[70] Ms.: "Arrived he told men to accept their lot/They must nor think nor strive nor".

[71] Ms.: "they"; IV, st. 1, l. 33 "Who".

[72] Ms.: "he smiled and thought "; l. 2 "A means his secret".

[73] Ms.: "all at a loss/What next to do"; and: "fierce and loud." L. 4 "Raised him on...cross".

[74] This stanza reads: "Where he did die. They never could have killed/Him who was God, the son and would have stemmed/Legions of men if he had willed:/If he was truly God, life stands condemmed."

[75] Ms.: "to live"; l. 2 "and made".

[76]  Ms.: "What does it matter then that we can"; l. 2 "the"; l. 3 "Life follows still in"; l. 4 "The question still remains".

[77] This stanza reads: "What does it matter that a little more/Of space reveals itself, seen through a glass?/Yea, what that anxiously we doubt and pore?/Death mows us as a sickle mows the grass."

[78] This poem (IM 13) was published in Canadian Forum X (September 1930), with minor discrepancies in punctuation. "Its self" in st.1, l. 4 reads "itself"; st. 2, l. 3 "hue" was misspelled "hude". It has been changed to read as in the published version. St. 4, l. 2 reads "over-subtle"; st. 6, l. 1+3 have "aught".

[79] This specification is lacking in the published version. Stanza 6, l. 2 has "once here".

[80] IM 14 is present in the Notebook (NB 21) with minor changes in stanzas 1 and 4, and without the dedication. Grove sent this "old poem" to Watson Kirkconnell in November, 1929 (WK ; Letters, p. 208-209). -- Grove also chose this poem for his Selections (S 6), where the name is spelled out as Peter McIlvride.

[81] NB 21: "is...though never named by fame; WK: "was...though unillumed by fame."

[82] NB 21: "being lies within us as"; WK is identical to IM 14.

[83] NB 21 has "And", WK has "Which".