Let’s talk poem titles
Help! I can’t be the only one who has this problem. Poem titles. What the &%$?!*?
I seem to have a issue with both the creative and the administrative aspects of poem titles.
Sometimes I’m pleased with a poem, but the ‘working title’ just doesn’t cut it. Or I don’t even have a working title. Sometimes I save a poem under its working title and then can’t find it. Sometimes I submit a poem with ‘title X’ which, after four or five rejections, I rework a bit and change the title, then can’t find either the poem or where I submitted it. Sometimes I have a GREAT title in my head, but can’t write a poem to go with it. Maybe it’s a pamphlet title? But I haven’t written the pamphlet either. Sometimes I look at the titles of poems in magazines and wonder at their length or quirkiness, and I TRY to write long, quirky titles to my poems. But they resist and resist until they’re just one or two words again. The first one often being ‘The’.
O gods of poetry, please tell me where the poem titles are, I need a clue!
Nice prose poem Robin. I’d call it Sometimes; a bit obvious I know, but it doesn’t raise expectations and does raise of modicum of curiosity. It has a little exposition, which is always good as the poem doesn’t then have to do it, but possibly could do with more. It doesn’t need to be called for example, ‘Sometimes A Sonnet’ because we can see that it’s a prose poem. It really conveys how you feel about writing titles, but not too much. So, yes, I’d go with the title Sometimes. But I’m no god!
ha ha ha! excellent, thanks Peter 🙂
I have much the same problems with titles. You don’t mention using the first line or the first words of a poem as the title, something which quite a few poets are quite keen on. But losing poems because of working titles, improved titles, submitted titles etc., – that is awful I agree. So time consuming and frustrating. I’m always doing it. Perhaps we should number each poem?
Good idea, Meg, or ditch the titles, like Emily Dickinson? I’ve done the ‘title as first line’ thing too – sometimes that can work, I agree.
I live in awe of poets who seem to come up with perfect titles every time.
I know the titles are important in terms of catching the eye of the reader and luring him/her in. However, I draw solace from greats like e.e. cummings who didn’t give a toss about titles!
Aha! Now that’s good to know. Titles be damned!
Write down those titles when they do pop into your head (you never know), unfortunately there is no magic titling poetry wand – try to capture the essence – it is the poet’s blurb. Good luck.
Ah yes, the magic titling wand – but perhaps there is, and we just haven’t quite found it yet? Like the Holy Grail … thanks Nina 🙂
Your post reminded me of one of my favourite poems: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poem/29783
Just be very glad that you’ve never written a poem called, ‘Vortex on a String’.
Ha ha! Thanks for the link, Cathy!
Yes, titles can definitely be a pain! To call it what it is, to call it what it could be or to call it what it really isn’t! Just read a useful piece on this very subject by Tamar Yoseloff available on The Poetry School website as a PDF download, some words of wisdom…
That sounds interesting, I shall take a look at that – thank you!
Some times a poem deserves not to be burdened with a title. In the T’ang dynasty in China a thousand years ago, a popular form of poetry was to write verse to the tune of certain well-known songs. Whenever I get a little poem out in the world that has no title and that is not asking one, I put it under the working title “To the Tune of a Song Not Yet Written” and leave it at that. Sometimes I come back to it and find it has a title waiting. But other times I find that original non-title seems to fit it just fine.
How interesting! Thanks for sharing that, Jeff 🙂
I’m with you here, Robin. I generally have very similar problems with titles and end up with very short ones. On occasion I have adopted the Wallace Stevens or John Ashbery approach where the poem doesn’t often seem to have any relation to the title at all. I suppose that’s risky but I think we should take risks with our poems from time to time .
Another great idea – the random title! I like the thought of people puzzling over a title in a workshop and discussing its significance to the poem, how wicked 🙂 Thanks, Pam
Seems you are not alone in this! I have used the first line of a poem a few times when I’m stuck. When I re-title a poem I change it on the computer but I still have other versions on paper and even I lose some for a while. But I do misfile my work from time to time anyway and even the search facility struggles! Hey ho!
Well I suppose I’m glad I’m not the only one who mis-files from time to time! When you say ‘first line as title’ do you mean instead of a title -? Which is something I’ve done a few times. I’ve never had a title followed by a first line that’s the same as the title, although I know that’s not uncommon. Thanks for commenting Heather.
Yes Robin I do mean the first line instead of the title and then it just launches into it! This was suggested for a poem of mine at a workshop so that’s what I did (it came second in a competition). I find I do this now sometimes whereas before I would never have considered it. It does depend on the poem though, I think. By the way, enjoy your retreat. Sounds lovely and the house is one I’d love to visit as I’m a bit of a pre-Raphaelite fan (my hero is William Morris).
Ah yes, I did this in a poem called ‘When my sister is old’ which seemed to lead into the first line of the poem. It’s here if you’re interested – http://www.agendapoetry.co.uk/documents/Retrospectiveswebsupplement.pdf (page 7)
Standen is a wonderful house, you’d enjoy it for sure, lots of Morris.