Words

For me, words have color, character,
They have faces, pouts, manners, gesticulations,
They have moods, humors, eccentricities,
They have tints, tones personalities.

Because people cannot see the color of words,
  the tints of words, the secret ghostly motion of words;
Because they cannot hear the whispering of words,
  the rustling of the procession of letters,
  the dream-flutes and dream-drums,
  which are thinly and weirdly played by words;
Because they cannot perceive the pouting of words,
  the frowning and fuming of words, the weeping,
  the raging and racketing and rioting of words;
Because they are insensible to the phosphorescing of words,
  the fragrance of words, the noisomeness of words,
  the tenderness or hardness, the dryness or juiciness of words –
  the interchange of values in the gold, the silver,
  the brass and the copper of words –
Is that any reason why we should not try to make them hear,
  to make them see, to make them feel?

Lafcadio Hearn