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I was drawn to the expression, “How to make you hear our tears” in the following sentence of the comment written by Sonia Sanchez under the caption, “Remembering Brother Martin” as a part of special article - “One Man, One March, One Speech, One Dream" in Time magazine (August 26 – September 2, 2013 issue):

“How to tell you about this aristocratic word sorcerer with a commoner’s eye? How to make you hear our tears as he welcomed our souls and held our hearts in his hands?”

Though it may sound like a sticker, we see somebody’s tears / tear drops, but we don’t hear tears (albeit it rhymes well) . Is it possible, or even usual to say “hear someone’s tears"?

As I checked a dictionary (Merriam-Webster), it defines tear as:

1.noun

a. singular: a drop of clear saline fluid secreted by the lachrymal gland and diffused between the eye and eyelids to moisten the parts and facilitate their motion.

b. plural : a secretion of profuse tears that overflow the eyelids and dampen the face

2. a transparent drop of fluid or hardened fluid matter (as resin)

3. plural : an act of weeping or grieving

Does “hear our tears” in the above quote come under the definition 3 of the above?

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"Hear our tears" is an example of synecdoche, in which a part stands in for the whole. Other examples are "hands" for manual workers, "bubbly" for champagne, or "head count".

In this case the tears are standing in for the emotions that produced them, as is "smiled through his/her tears". In your example, it is not the tears themselves that are heard, but the crying that they represent by synecdoche.

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  • I think this could also fall under the category of synaesthesia. The piece reads figuratively with "he held our hearts in his hands", and, in that poetic sense, the tears themselves might be heard.
    – tylerharms
    Commented Oct 1, 2013 at 15:02

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