Think of what nouns you would use, then reveal the poet's choices. But a blanket of cloud by afternoon Muffled the earth . And you walked the road , And the clover field , where the only sound , Was the cricket 's liquid tremolo . Willard Fluke, one of the 244 souls memorialized in Edgar Lee Masters's Spoon River Anthology had a crush on a Cleopatra look-alike. Context is the most important clue to understanding parts of speech.
Weak nouns are often a sign that a sentence can be improved.
It is often preferable to use a specific noun in place of a more general one. The gentleman got into his car and drove away. The surfer-dude got into his car and drove away. The coach got into his car and drove away. Substituting a different noun has a real impact on the idea a writer communicates.