You've run across it on the Web, the poem that begins:
I have a spelling checker,Variously titled "Spell Checker Blues," "Owed to a Spelling Checker," or "Spellbound," the poem has been circulating for years. Almost always it's attributed to Anonymous or, more playfully, "sauce unknown."
It came with my PC.
It plane lee marks four my revue
Miss steaks aye can knot sea.
In fact, the poem not only has a genuine author, it has two of them: Mr. Mark Eckman, who created the first two stanzas in 1991, and Dr. Jerrold H. Zar, who a year later added several verses and a title, "Candidate for a Pullet Surprise."
But there's more to the story than that. Last year we received an e-mail from Mr. Eckman, who took time to explain just what prompted him to compose the poem back in the days when he worked for AT&T.
You'll find Mark Eckman's story at The Spell Checker Poem, along with his original lines and Dr. Zar's augmented version. We're happy to rescue the poem from anonymity and give credit where it's due. After all, there's hardly an English teacher in the land who hasn't used the poem to illustrate the perils of placing too much faith in spell checkers.
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