Arts & Culture
Symbolist Poetry’s Reliance on Synesthesia Imagery
Quick fact
Arthur Rimbaud famously wrote a sonnet where vowels are assigned colors: 'A black, E white, I red, U green, O blue.' This is a classic example of synesthesia imagery in Symbolist poetry.
Why this is interesting
Imagine hearing a symphony while tasting a ripe peach—and then writing a poem that makes someone else 'taste' the music. Symbolist poets turned this sensory mash-up into a core poetic strategy.