Incorrectness in your speech <br />Carefully avoid, my Anna; <br />Study well the sense of each <br />Sentence, lest in any manner <br />It misrepresent the truth; <br />Veracity's the charm of youth. <br /> <br /> <br />You will not, I know, tell lies, <br />If you know what you are speaking. <br />Truth is shy, and from us flies; <br />Unless diligently seeking <br />Into every word we pry, <br />Falsehood will her place supply. <br /> <br /> <br />Falsehood is not shy, not she,- <br />Ever ready to take place of <br />Truth, too oft we Falsehood see, <br />Or at least some latent trace of <br />Falsehood, in the incorrect <br />Words of those who Truth respect.<br /><br />Charles Lamb<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/incorrect-speaking/
