Carol, yes, there's no doubt that it sounds more natural to say sighing and crying. I don't know why Andrew used the infinitives, but I'm guessing it's partly, if not wholly, a metrical decision. Still, you could argue that it suits the Dante poem (the tone, the style) to use the infinitives.
I have to say that if Andrew had written "Sighing my anguish and crying my ache..." I would still opt for the plural verb form "consume", because he uses anguish with one action and ache with the other, which makes them sound more specific and distinct from each other. Emphasis on "SOUND LIKE" there, because of course anguish and ache are rather similar to each other in reality. But the bottom line is: when in doubt, use the plural form." Then nobody can say you're making a unit of something that isn't a unit.
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Hybrid Mode
