Comparing Synesthesia And The Bower Essay - 2303 Words

Synesthesia and the Bower: An Analysis of â€Å"Ode to a Nightingale† by John Keats Filled with sensorial imagery, John Keats’s use of the senses in â€Å"Ode to a Nightingale† leads to synesthetic description in order to convey what he is feeling and what he is imagining. This poem is based in a desire for escape and this is achieved through an imaginative bower in the speaker’s mind. The speaker is taken to this bower â€Å"on the viewless wings of Poesy† (Ode 928) whose song has put him into such a sublime state that his senses are heightened; due to these heightened sense, the speaker turns to synesthesia. Synesthesia, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is â€Å"the use of metaphors in which terms relating to one kind of sense-impression are used to describe sense-impressions of other kinds† (OED). This form description is used to describe the speakers the sensations he is feeling and the images in his imagination. The imaginatio n is where Keats’s bower is located which affects the definition of the bower. A bower, in the poetic sense, is supposed to be â€Å"an idealized abode, not realized in any actual dwelling† (OED) which is the reason the speaker flies there to escape, due to its idealized state. However, Keats’s ideas on the imagination affect the bower and ultimately lead to the speaker’s choice to leave the bower and return to reality. Through this journey, synesthesia is only seen in the instances of intense sensation in the speaker’s sublime state; meaning, when the speaker