Why does Edwin Arlington Robinson, in his poem "Richard Cory, use the phrase "sole to crown" instead of "head to toe" and the phrase "imperially Slim"...

In his famous
poem ,uses careful phrasing in highly effective ways.

For example, rather
than calling Cory a gentleman from head to toe, Robinson instead calls him a gentleman from
sole to crown (3). If Robinson had written head to toe, the phrasing of the poem would have
seemed hackneyed and literally pedestrian.  There would have been nothing special about it;
Robinson would have been guilty of using a clich©. Such a flaw would have been especially
blameworthy in a poem about a man who seems so unusual and uncommon.  Cory is considered a kind
of aristocrat in the town in which he lives; he seems to live a loftier, happier, more exalted
life than those of most of the other townspeople. He is regarded almost as a kind of royal
figure, and so the word crown seems especially fitting (and also foreshadows the word
glittered in line 8).  Likewise, the word toe would have seemed not only clich©d but also
somewhat crude.  A toe is not, after all, an especially distinguished part of the human body,
whereas sole at least refers to Corys (probably expensive and attractive) shoes. To walk
around with ones toes exposed implies extreme informality, and Cory is anything but
informal.

In the same way, and for many of the same reasons, Robinson uses
the phrase imperially slim (4) rather than very thin.  The word very is, well, very
common and undistinguished.  It is perhaps the most over-used intensifying word in the English
language.  To have used the word very would have implied a lack of imagination on Robinsons
part, whereas imperially is not only highly unusual and attention-grabbing but is also
perfectly appropriate to the otherin this poem that associates Cory with a kind of small-town
aristocracy.  Such imagery includes not only the reference to a crown already discussed but
also the subsequent use of king (9).

Finally, slim is a better word than
thin because thin might have suggested that Cory (like other people in the town) was
undernourished.  It might have suggested that he was unattractively skinny, when in fact he is
anything but unattractive.  The word slim, on the other hand, suggests a man who is young,
healthy, physically fit, and (most important) in control of his life. For all these reasons, the
word slim helps make Corys death by suicide at the end of the poem seem all the more shocking
and ironic, not only to the townspeople but also to Robinsons readers. Cory, apparently, was not
very much in control of his life after all.  He may have been physically fit, but apparently he
was troubled by mental demons of which the townspeople were completely unaware, for

. . . Richard Cory, one calm summer night,

Went
home and put a bullet through his head. (15-16)