Confusing Near Homonyms
A meddlesome fellow is one who is bound
to mess in our business and boss us around,
while a mettlesome person is lively and gritty,
spirited, vigorous, gallant and witty.
They may be fine athletes, actors, or explorers,
but meddlesome people just tend to be borers.
Mettlesome’s interesting. Meddlesome? Deploring.
With one we’re enraptured. With the other, just snoring.
Why would a person who thinks up a word
Make opposites sound similar? It is absurd.
Mettlesome people turn out to be heroes.
They score a full ten to meddlesome’s zeroes.
Most mettlesome people please and amuse us,
but meddlesome people, by contrast, abuse us.
Considering this, our confusions suffuse us.
Was the word mettlesome coined to confuse us?
mettlesome: full of vigor and stamina; lively, gritty, spirited, gallant
meddlesome: interfering, meddling, intrusive, prying, inquisitive, officious.
The prompt word today is mettlesome.
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2019/02/06/rdp-wednesday-mettlesome/
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 
This one just made me laugh out loud. Pure genius!
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Good!! Love that reaction. Thanks, Victoria.
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Oops.. I actually substituted the word mettlesome for meddlesome in one of the lines. Now corrected. See? I am confused!!!
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With your clever poem, you’ve shown once again that there is little sanity to this cobbled-together mess we call English. I’m so glad I leaned it as a child. 😉
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The point is that it evolves from many different directions at once. No one really plans it. Dictionaries just record it..Even English books can’t keep grammar from evolving.
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Hilarious but so informative. Liked it a lot.
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🙂
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🙂 Very nicely done
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Thanks, Derrick. Hope you are feeling better every day.
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I am,, Judy. Thanks very much
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