Abstract

Poetry is usually the result of poet’s experiences and observations. Many of these experiences and findings are not reached through a single sense. To express and transfer such cases, a poet needs to impact different senses of the reader at the same time. One way to do this is through synesthesia. This rhetorical ornament can be achieved by using the word related to a sense about another. This ornament can also influence two or more senses, using amphebolical senses of a word. Synesthesia in western literature is sometimes because of the theory of correspondence or a belief in a hidden relation between the five senses. This theory can be compared to Rumi’s point of view about senses. In some other cases, synesthesia is the result of a synesthetical mood in a poet; a status which has been possibly experienced by poets as Rimbaud and Victor Hugo. Synesthesia has had few examples in ancient Persian literature, as well. Its frequency increased during the Hindi style and finally it grew completely common in contemporary poetry. The path of this process is discussed in this essay.