Sound & Sense, 2-84

Time for more instances of the homophone: a word pronounced the same as another but differing in meaning, whether spelled the same way or not, as heir and air.

1. gnu (noun): wildebeest

2. knew (verb—past tense of know): to perceive directly; to recognize, discern; to be aware of the truth or factuality of

3. new (adj.): not old; recently born, built, or created; not used by anyone else previously; recently bought, rented, etc.

4. nu (noun): the 13^th letter of the Greek alphabet

While learning the Greek alphabet,

She most adored that letter nu.

(In fact, she later took a jet

To Greece—the kind of thing she’d do.)

She thought she’d stop in Africa—

It’s what she often did: She flew

To places that she loved. And the

Weird outcome here? She met a gnu.

And this was somewhat new for her—

An animal she learned to love,

A thing with horns and lots of fur.

(Oh, what was she then thinking of?!?!)

But we all knew it wouldn’t last:

Her love for nu, her love for gnu:

Those love affairs could both be classed

As very weird. And so we drew

Conclusions. And when she returned,

We nabbed her, grabbed her, took her to

A “special place”—a place she’d earned:

We knew about that nu and gnu!