As Vázquez-Ayora and others have pointed out, it is possible for a translation to be idiomatic from sentence to sentence yet strangely foreign when read from beginning to end. This can occur when the translator, following the lead of the sentence patterns of the original, uses constructions with a frequency that would be abnormal in the target language. For example, un unusually high percentage of Latinate words can give a translation into English a cold and official tone not intended by the author. The present article shows that in the translation of poetry, the consistent option ofr Latinate over Saxon words has serious consequences, illustrated by a comparison of two translations of Neruda's poem Dream Horse.