Billet-doux

Appeared in the i Newspaper as  Inquisitor number 1645 on 2nd May 2020

All clues are normal but should be entered without a letter wherever it occurs.  Those letters should be placed in the corresponding border cell in the same row or column as the entry.  When complete, reading clockwise from the top-left, the perimeter provides a couplet (in ODQ) minus four words.  This verse will indicate to solvers what they must delete and what they must highlight. Enumerations refer to clue answers.

Solution Grids 

Initial Grid

Final Grid

The perimeter reads “L’absence est a l’amour ce quest au feu le vent; Il eteint [le petit], il allume [le grand]”, by French soldier and poet Comte de Bussy-Rabutin (1618-93). This translates to “Absence is to love what wind is to fire; It extinguishes the small, it kindles the great.”  Solvers are therefore required to delete PETIT from the grid and highlight GRAND.