1. Mrs MacNeice had put potatoes to roast in the hot ash; her husband was busy with the wine and a corkscrew.

2. The Earth Compels was the second poetry collection by Louis MacNeice.It was published by Faber and Faber on 28 April 1938, and was one of four books by Louis MacNeice to appear in 1938, along with I Crossed the Minch, Modern Poetry: A Personal Essay and Zoo.