EGGCORNS AS “TINY LITTLE POEMS”.

EGGCORNS AS “TINY LITTLE POEMS”. Eggcorns as well as mondegreens show up frequently in the student writing mistakes that are discussed in RAB’s blog “You Know What I Meant”. RAB analyzes them in much the same way that a good literary critic would analyze a lyric poem. Here is one recent eggcorn: “The way to win a man’s heart is through his pallet.” RAB points out that the student was probably thinking of “palate” as a substitute for “stomach.” But the word brings with it notions of a discriminating male (palate) and of “a straw mattress or other temporary bed” (pallet). A little poem. A second recent eggcorn: “Satan wanted to repuke God.” As RAB points out, “repuke” has notions of a “rebuke”; Satan (the rebuker) is treating God as an inferior. And there is the notion of “puking’, of physical disgust with God.