[General] Figurative usage of "be glued to"

[outofdejavu]

* * *


John Doe is an unmarried retired teacher. He took a trip to a countryside surrounded by mountains and a wide sweep of sea.
His heart was so glued to the rural soil that he packed up necessary personal effects after he went back home and moved to that countryside in the subsequent week.


* * *


I hope the wording in bold does not look/sound awkward or convey weird sense. If it does, kindly help me out with refining the wording. Very much obliged.

 

[jutfrank]

It's not a good metaphor. A heart cannot be glued to something, and something cannot be glued to soil.

You could possibly say His heart was so buried in the rural soil ... I can't think of anything better than that without rephrasing the whole sentence.

 

[Skrej]

We do say things like 'eyes glued to the tv' or 'ears glued to the radio', or 'butt glued to a chair', but those all have the idea of fixation or attentiveness that doesn't quite work with this sudden sense of enchantment you're trying to describe.

Perhaps something like 'his heart was so taken by' or 'struck by'. You could also play on the expression of 'setting down roots', and say something like 'His heart set roots in the country soil....".

 

[outofdejavu]

Perhaps something like 'his heart was so taken by' or 'struck by'. You could also play on the expression of 'setting down roots', and say something like 'His heart set roots in the country soil....".

The suggestion of "be struck by" reminds me of the word moonstruck. ;-)


Does the metaphor of magnet work in this context?

E.g.
The countryside drew his heart like a magnet so much that ....

The rural soil was so magnetic to him that ....

 

[Skrej]

The first one is a simile, not a metaphor. Regardless, it still seems a bit wordy - consider leaving off 'so much that'.

The second one doesn't sound very natural to me. If I hadn't already read the previous conversations, I wouldn't understand what you were trying to say.

The first one is the better choice, if you can shorten it.