Oh good heavens, I'm at it again
Oh how I'm weary of those who are wary
Who mistakenly write the wrong word.
Weary means tired and wary means leery,
To swap them is really absurd.
Wear and ware are homophones, it's true,
Weary and wary are most certainly not.
Carefully choose the word that you use
Lest others think your brain's gone to rot.
While I'm expounding on words and their use
In this public and peevish confessional,
Let me also include pique and peak as an issue
In letters meant to be quite professional.
My interest is piqued in the product you seek
to place on my company's website.
Yet you attempted to peak it and stranded my interest
on a mount of incredible height.
Know the limits of your vocabulary, please.
Plain words can get your point across.
If you use the wrong word you can be assured
That your effort will be labeled as dross.
3 comments:
Nice poem, and how comforting that others are driven wild by these mix-ups too!
My mother's pet peeve was people who said "I could care less." This used to get to her so much she would have to leave a room when she heard it. Mixing up subjective and objective -- "Would you like to come with John and I?" drove her mad as well.
What really drives me nuts is that I find these errors in professional communication! Fine if someone makes a mistake in their personal letters, but it's really not acceptable to have such basic mistakes in a newsletter.
I love it! I should copy and email this to everyone I know.
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