Synesthesia

Synesthesia: When one sense is used to describe another, different sense.

Eg. “I was awakened by the rough tapping of his shoes on the deafening red floor.” This example uses the sense of touch (rough) to explain the auditory tapping of the mans shoes. The sentence adds further syensthesia by explaining the visual input of the red color of the floor as an auditory sense (deafening).

Example from Frost:

Extract from __A Tuft of Flowers__ The butterfly and I had lit upon, Nevertheless, a message from the dawn, That made me hear the wakening birds around, And hear his long scythe whispering to the ground..."


 * disclaimer: this is an example of a //half// synesthesia, since speaking is not a sense, and it is being described as heard.*

In this extract, Frost uses synesthesia to describe the actions of the scythe. His auditory sense of hearing the scythe speaking shows the speakers attentiveness to the environment around him. Robert Frost does this in order to show a connection, a bonding between the speaker, who was working to destroy the butterfly's environment, is now "shown the light" by the same butterfly, and now sees the beauty in the landscape that he is working to destroy.

Example from Shakespeare: Extract from __King Lear__ Act II, Scene II "Thou art a lady: if only to go warm were gorgeous, Why nature needs not what thou gorgeous wear'st, Which scarcely keeps thee warm."

In this passage, Shakespeare uses synesthesia in order to describe Goneril as a scantily clad woman. The choice of the diction "warm," which is a sense of touch, describes a visual sense of her being "gorgeous." Shakespeare does this in order for King Lear to make fun of his daughter, commenting on her revealing dress, and how it relates to her comment on human needs. How she is criticizing King Lear for his seemingly exorbitant amount of servants, he turns her argument against her, asking her if they need so much, why does she need so little clothing.