The following is an anonymous poem featuring popular “eggcorns” in common speech or literature.

The Ballad of the Eggcorn

With baited breath I cast my line,

To nip it in the butt this time.

For all intensive purposes, I wait,

An escape goat prancing through the gate.

A doggy-dog world spins round and round,

Where hunger pains make stomachs sound,

And self of steam lifts me up high,

A card shark watching from the sky.

I toe the line, I rein it in,

Chomping at the bit to win.

A tough road to hoe beneath my feet,

With damp squids flopping in defeat.

Peaked my interest, make due with flair,

A whole nother world floats in the air.

Mating names and sherbert dreams,

Where eggcorns dance in language streams.

So here’s a toast to slips and swerves,

To wrong-turned words with lilting curves.

They charm, they trip, they spark delight —

Little lanterns in the twist of night.