Creeps in

This first bit of phrasing is, on the surface, very simple: a verb + a preposition:

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,

To the last syllable of recorded time;

Macbeth(1606)

We use verb-preposition combinations all the time:

  • Go to
  • Eat with
  • Sit down
  • Talk on

So there's nothing intrinsically Shakespearan about them. 

But you might notice that your more evocative verbs create combinations that sound more poetic:

  • Drags on
  • Sighs out
  • Buys off
  • Tears up

And you might also notice that your one-syllable verb and preposition phrases tend to fall into a galloping, heartbeat-type rhythm—daDUM—which Shakespeare uses a lot (and we will talk about later).

If we take the verbs we brainstormed earlier, and then a list of simple prepositions such as in, on, out, at, of, up, to, as, by, for, down, into, like, with, through we can easily create dozens of similar combinations:

Drive-thru: drags on, sighs out, snatches at, speaks for, angers with, listens in, barks off, crackles through, hisses in, blinks to, fumbles round

Everything falls apart: buys off, loses on, decays as, strains under, tears up, erodes by, delights in, despairs for, holds through, slips away, crush out, drifts off

Write some verb + preposition pairs. You might like to look back at your list word-association list to find interesting verbs.