Sound and Sense, 76

We’re moving next to the homophone: a word pronounced the same as another but differing in meaning, whether spelled the same way or not, as heir and air. So … contronyms are words that have contradictory meanings (sanctiion = approve and disapprove; homophones sound alike but to not mean the same—and often are not spelled the same, either.

1. frees (verb): third-person singular, present tense form of free—to release or liberate

2. freeze (verb): to become a hard substance, like ice, because of cold( noun) a period in which weather is very cold

3. frieze (noun): a sculptured or richly ornamented band (as on a building or piece of furniture)

He thought he’d try to paint a frieze,

But, nearly done, he had to sneeze

And blew the paint into the trees.

That night there was a total freeze,

And he (so very hard to please),

Looked out: It brought him to his knees.

They say that art’s a thing that frees

Us from the everyday. Unease,

However, grew: A Balmy Breeze

Blew sneeze from trees into the air—

It got in everybody’s hair

(And even choked a grizzly bear.)

And so our artist had to split—

His fans had had enough of it.

(It’s kinda gross, you must admit!)