word choice - Does the line" Tears of disbelief sting my eyes" make sense?



Can I use the words - "Tears of disbelief sting my eyes" to express the fact that I am very sad and shocked?



Answer



Poetic license, or more accurately, "artistic license" must be considered here. Robusto's comment is perfectly appropriate, but there is no doubt in my mind that in some context "colorless green dreams sleep furiously" might actually make sense! In the description of a drug-induced state, for example.


And you cannot tell me that the famous poem "Jabberwocky" doesn't contain a hefty helping of artistic license!


'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves 
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves, 
And the mome raths outgrabe.

Does any part of this make ANY kind of sense? Of course not, but that is the point.


License, my friends, means that something is permitted, IF you can get the reader to swallow it.


And "Tears of disbelief sting my eyes" is perfectly capable getting buyoff from readers.


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