Learn English and meet people on the world’s largest EFL social network

Poetic expressions

General English Grammar & Vocabulary,... » General English Vocabulary & Idiom...

We have partnered with TradePub to bring you free industry magazines and resources - no coupons or credit cards required!

Visit: englishforums.tradepub.com


Share this topic:
This question is Not Answered
Latest post Sat, May 27 2006 12:05 PM by Damiana. 5 replies.
Suggest an answer | | |
Damiana  +  229456 Sat, 27 May 06 01:03 AM
I need poetic or epic-style equivalents for the following:
to help ("To extend a helping hand" seems too formalistic to me, and I have not ever come across any idioms with the similar meaning);
to dislike;
to value ("To hold in great honour"? Any other suggestions?);
to make a mistake;
to fail one's expectations;
to take occasion;
a daydream (And what if a person is having a daydream at night?);
to fall a victim to smth;
to become angry.

Thank you kindly in advance.

Greetings from Russia,
Damiana
Damiana
Joined on Fri, May 26 2006
New Member 16
Clive  +  229466 Sat, 27 May 06 01:58 AM

Hi Damiana,

Welcome to the Forum.

I need poetic or epic-style I'm no sure what you mean by 'epic-stye' equivalents for the following:
This is not an easy request. Poetry calls for the original and unusual, not just a synonym.

to help ("To extend a helping hand" seems too formalistic to me, and I have not ever come across any idioms with the similar meaning); to lighten someone's burden

to dislike;  to turn your countenance away from
to value ("To hold in great honour"? Any other suggestions?); to cherish
to make a mistake; to err.   to fail.   to fall.
to fail one's expectations; (not exactly sure what you mean) to disappoint. To fail
to take occasion; (don't know what you mean) to seize the moment?
a daydream a lyrical transport (And what if a person is having a daydream at night?); a nightmare
to fall a victim to smth; to be felled by something. To run afoul of  
to become angry. to be filled with wrath.  to be consumed by an all-encompassing fury that shakes the essence of your soul . . .

Now I remember why I don't write poetry.

Best wishes, Clive
Clive
Joined on Thu, Oct 28 2004
Canada
Veteran Member 29,600
El tango argentino es un pensamiento triste que se puede bailar (The tango argentino is a sad thought which can be danced) Enrique Santos Discépolo
,
Related discussions
Damiana  +  229471 Sat, 27 May 06 02:28 AM
Thank you, Clive.

"I'm no sure what you mean by 'epic-stye'"
Actually I was keeping "The Kalevala" in mind: abundant epithets and metaphors, etc.

"This is not an easy request. Poetry calls for the original and unusual, not just a synonym."
And that is exactly what I am looking for.

"to make a mistake; to err. to fail. to fall"
Is "to take a wrong step" all right?

"to fail one's expectations; (not exactly sure what you mean)"
Yes, to dissapoint. Does "to fail one's expectations" sound odd to a native speaker? How would you paraphrase that to make the meaning more clear?
Damiana
,
Clive  +  229473 Sat, 27 May 06 02:46 AM

Hi again,

"This is not an easy request. Poetry calls for the original and unusual, not just a synonym."
And that is exactly what I am looking for. Yes, and that's why it's not easy. If I had that kind of mind, I'd use my great ideas in my own poems! (ha-ha)

"to make a mistake; to err. to fail. to fall"
Is "to take a wrong step" all right? Yes, but it's not very original or poetic.

"to fail one's expectations; (not exactly sure what you mean)"
Yes, to disapoint. Does "to fail one's expectations" sound odd to a native speaker? No, it's OK. How would you paraphrase that to make the meaning more clear? To show me you are not the person I thought you were. To show your human failings.

Best wishes again, Clive
Clive
Marius Hancu  +  229478 Sat, 27 May 06 03:38 AM
Well, I'm not sure if you're interested in famous quotations including the words in question.

If you are, I'd suggest to make searches at Yahoo with say:

daydreaming quotations
(daydreaming could be replaced by other words of your choice)

and you'll find pages which refer, directly or indirectly, to daydreaming, such as:

http://www.quotegarden.com/daydream.html

However, you'll need to be quite selective in what Yahoo digs up for you.

Marius Hancu
Joined on Wed, Apr 26 2006
Veteran Member 11,673
Damiana  +  229573 Sat, 27 May 06 12:05 PM
Thank you so mush. I've found such synonyms for "daydreaming" as "to be lost in reveries" and "to have one's mind wandering". Generally I use Google to make sure if a certain expression exists in English, for the word-for-word translation of Russian idioms, colloquialisms and metaphors of my own can be really tricky: when I come up with something colorful, the English equivalent may appear completely nonsensical. But those quotation resources are a gold-mine indeed. Now, the objective is not to plagiarize =) I’ll try to be creative, thus using what I’ve found as samples and patterns only.
Damiana
, , , ,
Welcome to Englishforums.com, the world's largest EFL / TEFL social network.

Places to start

Browse Englishforums

© MediaCet Ltd. 2009, v5.0.3607.32596. All content posted by our users is a contribution to the public domain, this does not include imported usenet posts.*
For web related enquires please contact us on webmaster@mediacet.com, status updates are available at status.mediacet.com.
*Usenet post removal: Use 'X-No-Archive'. You may not have understood that your posts would end up in the public domain. Please send proof of the poster's email, we will remove immediately.