Keats

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The Poetry of John Keats and William Carlos Williams: A Synaesthetic Approach

Dr. Anita Sharma

Associate Professor, Govt. College, Theog,

Shimla-171004.

William Carlos Williams drew his early poetic inspiration from the works of John Keats, that “Williams was reading …the romantic poets particularly Keats”, at the time he first met Ezra Pound , the father of imagism in American poetry ,is recorded by Charles Doyle. Another interesting common point to note is that both the poets were physicians who during their medical training, acquired the knowledge of the physiology of sensation that has played its meaningful role into the technique of their poetry. Karl Beck son and Arthur Gang define the term “Synaethesia” as the intermingling of sensations; the sensing for example of certain sounds through colors or odors .(Beck son and Ganz,209) .Fogle , while amplifying Professor June E. Downey”s concept of synasthesia ,hints at the possibility of visual participation in some of the sensation clusters concerned : “ The function of all poetic imagery is to order ,relate, and unify desperate modes of physical, mental and emotional experience .Synaesthesia is a particular species of imagery which propose chiefly to establish relationships between the different modes of sensations, finding, for example, analogies between color and music , music and odor, odor and color.” (Fogle,101) .Fogle gives evidence from Baudelaire’s Correspondences and says that in this Sonnet the poet describes and exemplifies the synaesthetic image as he sees it from his own particular angle (Fogle,102). While dissecting and examining the Sonnet’s sensory content, Fogle comments “Scents, colors and sounds melt and mingle with each other like far –off, fading echoes, perfumes are Fresh as the flesh of babes, sweet as oboes, green as meadows. The ultimate result is unity of sensation, vast, shadowy, and profound “. (Fogle,102)

Williams Carlos Williams drew his early poetic inspiration from the works oh John Keats, that “Williams was reading …the romantic poets particularly Keats “, at the time he first met Ezra Pound, the father of imagism in American poetry, is recorded by Charles Doyle (Doyle, 1). Another interesting common point to note is that both the poets were physicians who, during their medical training, acquired the knowledge of the physiology of sensation that has played its meaningful role into the technique of their poetry.

In his poem Adam, Williams gives a typical vent to his imagination in the expression “darker whispering “, that may fully represent the unity of sensations by means of a “shadowy” sound: Underneath the whisperings Of tropic nights there is a darker whispering that death invents especially

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for northern men whom the tropics have come to hold .(CEP,372)

The startling novelty of the synasthesia and the suddenness or its audio-visual impact are in keeping with the Fogle’s observation on Baudelaire’s Sonnet : “As Baudelaire’s Sonnet demonstrates ,synasthesia sense-transference is likely to be sudden and startling; it often cuts sharply across conventional patterns of feelings”. Williams description of the soft sound of whispering as invented but a personified death has an auditory appeal, no doubt, but the “whispering “ has a meaningful visual complexity in “darker”.

The “darker whispering “of death is inconceivable and imperceptible under ordinary circumstances and hence it suddenly cuts across our conventional sensory expectations. “Modern synasthesia, on which the remarks of Messrs Babbitt , Wilson, and Brooks are based ,stems mainly from or “color-audition ; or tonal vision “ in which sounds and colors are interchangeable . As a form of poetic imagery it is distinguished by its high degree of self awareness and by the speed and surprise of its action: it is a literary artifice effective when sufficiently sudden in impact and outré in the terms of analogy which it proposes (Fogle.103). The “darker whispering” is devoid of any color sensation, yet the expression unfurls a strange canvas of visual imagery which, in its quick synaesthetic mechanism of sense-transference, receives “self –awareness” of a high degree in conjunction with its “speed and surprise of action.”

It is interesting to note how Williams learns on the synaesthetic art of Keats at times .For example ,the expression “darker whispering “ seems to be closely related in structure to the Keatsian expression, “old shadowy sound “. In the opening quatrain of the sonnet On The Sea .Keats gives a similar vent to his imagination with reference to the sound of the sea: It keeps eternal whispering around Desolate shores, and with its mighty swell Gluts twice ten thousand caverns, till the spell Of Hectate leaves them their old shadowy sound (1-4 ) Keats’s description of the sea is mostly auditory in the opening line of the sonnet. The sea is supposed to give out a soft whispering sound. Devoid of the water, the caves now retain only the strange auditory phenomenon –a soft sound which may be visually perceived in the imagination of Keats as “shadowy”. This perception suddenly cuts across the conventional sensory expectation of the reader. In Williams “darker whispering “of death the visual has its preponderance over the auditory and it is in consonance with the dark sensation implied in the context, whereas in Keats’s “shadowy sound” of the ocean the focus is on the auditory. Moreover, although Williams shows signs of a Keatsian influence in his imagery ,the expression “darker” has a sense of reinforcement in the use of the comparative degree and that is why, less abstract than Keats’s “shadowy” visual. The visibility of sound, in both the illustrations, has no association with any color sensation, thus defying boldly the attitude of the symbolists in this context. In fact, there is a distinct difference between the serious synaesthetic manifestations of the symbolists and those of poets like Keats and Williams. Moderns, such as Baudelaire, Rimbaud, and Huysmans “diverge too far from normal experience; they are involved, as



Professor Babbitt has said in a hopeless subjectivity” (Fogle, 104). William Carlos Williams, like Keats is “less startling, less eccentric and less self conscious. (Fogle,105) In the symbolists the synasthesia has a tendency to be an end itself, whereas in Williams it is a means to an end. Williams does not seem to be keen on over-structuring or over-emphasizing any single synaesthetic image as such, but mergers it, like Keats, with more general and larger complexes of concept and emotion.

In William’s sensory art audition in paradox, as in the example cited from Adam, is often associated with the different patterns of visual phenomena. In Perpetuum Mobile: the City, the image of the moon has such a complexity: In bright-edged

clouds The moon-bring silence Breathlessly –(CEP,389-90) The moon is placed in juxtaposition with the clouds which have an imagistic “bright-edges” appearance. In the image, the auditory has a tendency to get eclipsed as the moon, with all its organic effort, holds its physiological functions of inspiration and expiration so as to keep the accompanying personified silence absolutely undisturbed. It is assumed here that even the whisper –soft sound of breathing may distort the normal characteristic of silence that lends to the imagery the mysterious quality of audition in paradox. In Keats synasthesia the audition is sometimes affected by an imaginative sound of breathing, as in Endymion: ..as the sunset peeps into a wood, so saw he panting light and towards it went. (II ,382-83)

Here we readily agree with the Fogle when he feels that the light “pulsates in regular bursts, and to this organic pulsation is added the further sensuous attribute of sound”. (Fogle, 109).Our agreement with the contention of the critic is made easier as he hastens to add: “This interfusion of divergent sense at first seems forced, but in its setting it proves to be natural and functional. Endymion, following the light through Winding Alleys, comes upon a group of slumbering cupids. The general impression of sunlight resolves itself into living ,breathing forms and the unapproachable non-humanness of the suns’ rays merges with the warm intimacy of human bodies”( Fogle,109). However, Williams moon imagery has a greater affinity with the star imagery in Keats’s Lamia: “… like held breath, the straws drew in their panting fires” (1,300). With reference to this synaesthetic expression Fogle points out that “organic, visual, kinesthetic, and tactual images combine “(Fogle 110). Although, Fogle associates a sensuous attribute of sound with “panting light “, he neglects the association of audition in paradox in “panting fires “. Moreover, his argument relating to a “tactual” association is redundant in the sense that the “organic perception covers and overlaps any tactile impression in the sensory pattern of the image. Further, in a comparative analysis it is discernible that the Kinesthetic force, if any, is greater in the moon imagery of William than in the star imagery of Keats because the moon is picturized in its dynamicity while bringing silence .Along with her, whereas the “panting fires” are drawn “in” by the static stars. In the light of our argument, although the tactile is a weak factor in the passage quoted above, the visual participation with the tactile is more prominent in several synaesthetic expressions of Williams. For example, in The Crimson Cyclamen, the personified silence “holds” the long and slim stocks of the delicate flowers in



“space” (CEP, 397).The visual of the flowers is not a primary importance here, but it is audition in paradox that is visualized as having the organic functions of a living body which holds up delicately the slender and fragile stalk of the Crimson Cyclamen. Here the synaesthetic artistry reveals the imitation of the pattern of an audio-visual-tactile cluster designed by Keats in Lamia in which the auditory sensation is perceived as having a visible solidity and an organic strength: “A haunting music, sole perhaps and lone/supportness of the fiery roof “(ii,122-23).Williams sense of aesthetic quality in structuring the synasthesia concerned to surpass that of his poet master. The role of silence as a visible phenomenon is picturized in The Sun. Silence is juxtaposed against the waves of the sea. The sun: Lifts heavily and cloud and sea weigh upon the unwanting air- hasteless the silence is divided by small waves that wash away Night where wave is without sound and gone –(CEP,412) The silence is envisioned as having a large expanse of visible existence on the bosom of the sea. The audition in paradox is reinforced by the presentation of the hastelessness of the small waves which are superimposed upon the singular and soundless “wave” of the night .The imagery receives its initial tangible force of the tactile as the sun rises “heavily” at the meeting point of the sky and the sea, by pushing apart the weighty and “unwaiting” air. The animated silence has its regular dose of the tactile sensation on being “divided” by the waves. In this audio-visual-tactile cluster, stretched over three stanzas of four small lines each, it will not be possible to pin down the synasthesia associated with the silence in a small unit of expression. Sometimes, it is possible to associate some audio-visual phenomena in Williams’ synasthesia with loud audition as in The Last Turn: ..in distressing details –from behind a red light at the 53rd and 8th of a November evening, the Jazz of the cross lights echoing the crazy weave of the breaking mind (CLP,44) The lights of the wintery evening are imagined to emit the sound of the jazz music. The weaving pattern of the cross lights, further ,is envisioned as having the perception of solidity when a parallel sound of the meshwork of the “breaking mind “ is echoed off the plane of anastomosis of lights at the junction of the two roads. The red colored visual conglomerates with a sound pattern in the engrossing synasthesia in which the cross lights take on the solidity of a surface that can echo, the jazz sound. A set of similar color-audition or tonal vision, in which the sounds and colors are interchangeable , is cited by Fogle from Francis Thompson’s Ode to the Setting Sun, in



which the expressions ,” thy visible music- blasts” and “ I see the crimson blaring of thy shawms” are considered good examples of synaesthesia.Fogle points out that in Keats poetry as well, sound is sometimes perceived as silver and golden , and he refers to the image in “other harmonies, stopped short/leave the dinned air vibrating silverly” (Hyperion,II,127-76), as “the most definitely synaesthetic among Keats’s figures of this sort,” as it is most compact and unequivocal”, and in it the “poet somehow manages to convey the impression that the unusual Silverly is the only possible word for the occasion, there is ,as it were, a matter –of-factness and calm certainty in his use of it “. In this context Fogle refers to the “silver thrills” of “kissing cymbals” (Endymion, iv.197-98) and “music’s golden tongue “(The Eve of St.Agnes, 20). Williams gives visibility to the “unmoving roar” of the waterfalls, the sound being “fastened there” (Paterson: The Falls, CLP, 11). The tactile participation as in “kissing cymbols”, is pronounced her as the “roar” which is ordinarily associated with the dynamicity of the loud sound, is bound bodily at the location of the waterfalls, and is not allowed to move from there. Similarly, sound is visually perceptible in the “voice entered at my eyes”, the visual of a “music” that “streams” above “love”, a voice “grappling the ear“and a bird “untwisting a song”, in the following passages: Silent, her voice entered at my eyes And my astonished thought followed her easily (The Wanderer, CEP,5) As from an illness, as after drought The streams realized to flow Filling in the fields with freshness The birds drinking from every twig And beasts from every hollow Bellowing, singing of the unrestraint To colors of a making world So After love a music steams above it (Hymn to Love Ended, CEP,108) Speak to men of these, concerning me! For never while you permit them to ignore me In these shall the full of my freed voice Come grappling the ear with intent! (The Wanderer, CEP,8) ---and you? Higher, still Robin Untwisting a song From the bare Top twigs, Are you not Weary of labor Even the labor of A song ? (Ballet, CEP, 169)



In this set of illustrations, in the first example, the auditory sensation of the voice of the Muse is received not by the ears of the poet, but by his organ of sight, thus effecting a unique tonal vision, in second illustration, the sound of music is attributed a perceptible liquidity of water as it flows above the associated phenomena of love. In the third citation, the full impact of the freed voice is felt by the ear of the persona as the personified strong sound holds the organ of hearing, and the visual perception is reinforced as the sound is shown as “grappling in the ear with intent!” In the fourth passage under reference, the sound of the song is given the body of a twisted shape which the robin redbreast ,in spite of being “weary of labor”, untwists.

The tactile sensation of a silky softness often occurs with the visual participation in the synasthesia of Williams. A striking example of “silken mists”, in which the “sun is a flame-white disc”, is recorded by Williams (Danse Fusse, CEP, 148) .In Keats’s I Stood Tip –Toe, a similar visual-tactile fusion is noted at a great distance from our terrestrial region, …the pillowy silkiness that rests Full in the speculation of the stars .(188-189) Folge examines the synthesis in the “pillowy silkiness”. “The cold, unearthly remoteness of the heavens takes on warm and sensuous personality by virtue of the fusion of tactual images of softness and fullness with the faint, almost abstract visual image “speculations”. Similarly, the tactile of smoothness is often visualized by Williams in color sensations associated with the sky imagery. The “sky/ is smooth/as a turquoise” (To a Solitary Disciple, CEP, 167) represents the startling smile in which the tactile is figuratively visualized in its fusion with a gemstone of rich colour.The shadowiness of the fusion is remarkable indeed. However, less startling is the image of “smooth purple sky “(First Version: 1915, CEP, 173), as no solid object figures in the synaesthesia. But when the sky is “velvet like a leaf “(Eternity,CEP,38), the extra –terrestrial visual of the space, in its fusion with a terrestrial botanical object that can be felt by the human lends to the synaesthesia an immediacy of perceptual coherence and strength. The visual of the night is attributed a rare smoothness in song: My mind could shove in its fingers and break apart the smooth singleness of the night until sleep dropped as rain upon me. (CEP, 178)

The night is visualized as a vast and perceptible solid sheet of thin material which can be broken apart by the fingers of the poet. A second synaesthesia as presented in the visual of a liquefied sleep dropping “as rain upon” the poet, thus bringing in the sensation of touch in the image. As against the abstractions envisioned above, the tonal vision is concretized in its naturalness in a “tissue-thin monotone of blue-grey buds” (Spring Strains, CEP, 159), as the synaesthesia fuses the perceptible delicacy of the tactile with a double synasthesia fuses the perceptible delicacy of the tactile with a double –color visual of the buds.

In the course of discussions it is concluded that although the early Keatsian influences are marked well in some of the important image patterns of the American poet, the imagery of



Williams often gives up the British poet’s romantic stylistics so as to inculcate the spirit of imagism which is the basic structure of the versification of Williams. Both the poets have drawn from sources, real and imaginary, from the then British and American ethos and milieu respectively. Works Cited:

1. Beckson, Karl and Ganz, Arthur, a Reader’s guide to Literary Terms, New York: Noonday Press, 1960.

2. Fogle, Richard Harter, the Imagery of Keats and Shelley: A Comparative Study, Chapel Hill: Univ.Of North Caroline Press, 1949.

3. Doyle, Charles, in “Introduction to Williams Carlos Williams: The Critical Heritage, ed. Charles Doyle, London: Rutledge and Kegan Paul, 1980.

4. Allott, Miriam ed., the Poems of John Keats, London: Longman, 1970. 5. The Collected Earlier Poems of William Carlos Williams, New Direction, 1951, quoted

as CEP. 6. The Collected Later Poems Of Williams Carlos Williams , revised edition ,New York:

New Direction, 1963 ; First Published,1944,quoted as CLP 7. Interviews with William Carlos Williams, Ed with an introduction by Linda Welshimer

Wagner (New York: New Direction, 1976). 8. Mariani, Paul. Williams Carlos Williams: A New World Naked, New York: MCgrawll-

Hill Book, 1981. 9. Dickstein, Morris. Keats and His Poetry: A Study In Development .Chicago: University

Of Chicago, 1971. 10. Jack, Ian. Keats and the Mirror of Art.London: Oxford University Press, 1967.



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Keats