Poetic Terms Dictionary
Figure of Speech

Synaesthesia

From Greek syn (together) + aisthesis (sensation). Championed by Baudelaire ('Correspondances') and Rimbaud; a defining feature of Symbolist and Romantic imagery.

Definition

The description of one sense in terms of another — the cross-wiring of sensory domains in poetic imagery.

Example

Keats: 'Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard / Are sweeter' — sound perceived as taste.

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