The Role of Synaesthetic Metaphors in Contemporary

English Poetry

Koliada Alina
 The relevance of the research is predetermined by the necessity of
analyzing the concept of synaesthetic metaphor, its functions and usage in
literature as well as examining the models of metaphoric transfers between
different sensory channels in contemporary English poetry.

The aim of the research: to identify and describe the models of

intermodal transference of synaesthetic metaphors in modern poetic texts.
The object of the research: the nomination of qualities perceived
with the help of sensory channels in the modern English.

The subject of the research: the specificity of metaphorical

conceptualization of sensory images in English poetry.
Objectives:
1. to undertake a study of metaphorical conceptualization in the English language, to
clarify the essence and nature of the concepts "metaphor" and "synaesthetic
metaphor";
2. to select a set of examples from poetic texts that contain synaesthetic metaphors;
3. to conduct a cognitive analysis of the synaesthetic metaphors and identify the
models of intermodal associations, widely used in contemporary English poetry;
4. to identify and analyze stylistic devices employed to convey intermodal
associations;
5. to define the functional and semantic load of figurative means (metaphors) in
poetic texts.
Methods of the research:
1. Critical analysis
2. Definition analysis
3. Total sampling
4. Conceptual analysis
5. Cognitive modeling
6. Contextual interpretation
 The definition of metaphor. Synaesthesia and synaesthetic
metaphors
Metaphor is a conceptual mapping, a set of correspondences between two
distinct conceptual domains, the source and the target domain. (G. Lakoff and
M. Johnson)
Synaesthesia is a perceptual phenomenon in which stimulation of a sensory
or cognitive pathway results in involuntary experiences in the other cognitive
or sensory pathway.
Synaesthetic metaphor is a metaphor that exploits a similarity between
experiences in different sense modalities, e. g. warm voice. (G. Sklyarevskaya)
Touch-sound model

I was six when I first saw kittens drawn.

Dan Taggart pitched them, ‘the scraggy wee shits’
Into a bucket; frail metal sound.

(Seamus Heaney, The Early Purges)

Sight-sound model
And darkened cobbles
In the bed of the lane.
Anahorish, soft gradient
Of constant, vowel-meadow.

(Anahorish)
Taste-sound model
I loved the dark drop, the trapped sky, the smells

Of waterweed, fungus and dank moss.

One, in a brickyard, with a rotted board top.

I savoured the rich crash when a bucket

Plummeted down at the end of a rope.

So deep you saw no reflection in it.

(Personal Helicon)
Smell-sound model

Daily it sweltered in the punishing sun.

Bubbles gargled delicately, bluebottles

Wove a strong gauze of sound around the smell.

(Death of a Naturalist)
Frequency of metaphoric transfers in Seamus Heaney’s poems

Model Number of Percentage

samples
4% Touch-sound 23 46%
6%
Sight-sound 22 44%
Taste-sound 3 6%
Touch-sound model
46% Sight-sound model Smell-sound 2 4%
Taste-sound model
Smell-sound model
44%
 Conclusions:
1. Metaphor is an expression that describes a person or object by referring to something
that is considered to have similar characteristics to that person or object. Due to its
vividness, it is widely employed in literature.
2. Synaesthetic metaphor has a remarkable capacity in terms of creating different
images and portraying various phenomena.
3. In Seamus Heaney’s poetry touch has become the predominant source of transfers
when the target domain is sound. Sight and smell are the least employed source
domains by the author.
4. The language Seamus Heaney employed in his poetry is bright and colourful. His
usage of synaesthetic metaphors makes the readers conjure up images, thoughts and
feelings.
Thank you for attention!