Title title

[ScatteredShowers]

Question to those in the know:

How do you come up with titles to your poems?

Mine are always so uninviting and blah.

Help!
Please!

I couldn't even come up with a title for this thread!
I got my name from a weather report!

TIA

ScatteredShowers



Future's so bright, I gotta wear shades

 

[Angeline]

Hello SS. Well it's your bad luck to get your first answer from me because much as I love to write poems, I hate coming up with titles for my poems, and I think I'm pretty bad at it. Great help, so far huh?

Shakespeare didn't title his sonnets, you know, and many other great poets used them sporadically (William Butler Yeats is one example), if at all. I have found, however, that this argument is quickly shot down by poets who tell me that titles are important and often serve as sort of a welcome mat to a poem.

So ok. I cannot give you a method, but you may find some ideas or inspiration in the Freakin Good Titles thread, which my now absent pal karmadog started a few years back. He wrote in it frequently, choosing titles he liked and discussing them. There are great titles in it--and his responses are often side-splittingly funny.

Hope it helps!

 

[HomerPindar]

I've been puzzling an answer to this thread since I saw it yesterday, and I still don't have one.

If it comes to me, I have a title, if not I make one up upon submitting the poem. Often though, I have to look back at the poem and go, oh, yeah, THAT one.

Titles are important in a salemenship sort of way, it draws attention to your poetry in a culture use to flash and attention (I think this arguement is actual in karmadog's thread, come to think of it ). Course, Shakespeare got away without because, well, he's Shakespeare fer cry'n out loud.

HomerPindar

 

[Angeline]

I've been puzzling an answer to this thread since I saw it yesterday, and I still don't have one.

If it comes to me, I have a title, if not I make one up upon submitting the poem. Often though, I have to look back at the poem and go, oh, yeah, THAT one.

Titles are important in a salemenship sort of way, it draws attention to your poetry in a culture use to flash and attention (I think this arguement is actual in karmadog's thread, come to think of it ). Course, Shakespeare got away without because, well, he's Shakespeare fer cry'n out loud.

HomerPindar

Well, *now* he's SHAKESPEARE--then he was just another zhlub with an inkwell vying for Lizzy's attention.

 

[HomerPindar]

Well, *now* he's SHAKESPEARE--then he was just another zhlub with an inkwell vying for Lizzy's attention.

While an astute observation, this lends nothing to the debate over how one comes up with titles

If it bothers you, as it sometimes does me, simply don't post the poem at once. Hold on to it, and then, later on, when you try to recolect it and examine it in hindsight, think to yourself what is it that I think of this piece as - therein lies a title.

Or, pull out a dictionary and pick a word at random

HomerPindar

 

[OT]

I'm no better or no worse at picking titles than most, but I do have an opinion or two about what goes into a good title.

Angeline pointed out the K-dog thread. Many of the titles mentioned there were very good titles. But (there's always a but) many of the poems mentioned were not mention-worthy *except* for the title. Great titles without a decent poem beneath them makes me sad.

I think you can go one of two ways with a title.

The first way (most common) is to boil the poem down to its very essence and attempt to sum it up in a word or two. The title *is* a poem -- a sort of a haiku-ish interpretation of the poem that follows.

The other way to go, is to incorporate the title as part of the poem. It serves as the first line of the poem and adds to the imagery. The beauty of this approach is that the title need not (and of course usually does not) follow the form of the poem. You get to say what you want to say as plainly (or obscurely) as you like.

OK, I lied, there is a third (sometimes effective) method to title a poem.
Simply pick the best line of the poem. If it's a good line, chances are it will make a good title.

 

[THESLEEKONE]

Hello SS. Well it's your bad luck to get your first answer from me because much as I love to write poems, I hate coming up with titles for my poems, and I think I'm pretty bad at it. Great help, so far huh?

Shakespeare didn't title his sonnets, you know, and many other great poets used them sporadically (William Butler Yeats is one example), if at all. I have found, however, that this argument is quickly shot down by poets who tell me that titles are important and often serve as sort of a welcome mat to a poem.

So ok. I cannot give you a method, but you may find some ideas or inspiration in the Freakin Good Titles thread, which my now absent pal karmadog started a few years back. He wrote in it frequently, choosing titles he liked and discussing them. There are great titles in it--and his responses are often side-splittingly funny.

Hope it helps!

OK Hello! testing testing...Is this thing On?!?! As To titles, It's Purpose is to Remind the reader of the Story Quickly- It does not need to be a Direct Reference to the Subject Matter, Characters, Or even Plot- Many Great stories' Titles Have Absolutely Nothing to do with the Story at all, Making them all the More Memorable. Scattered Showers Hit the Nail on the Head- just ask her Cousin Partly Cloudy... And By th by, Hello to Everyone Else- I've been Lurking awhile- Love the Effort put into this Site- Love the Site, period.

 

[The_Fool]

I've been puzzling an answer to this thread since I saw it yesterday, and I still don't have one.

If it comes to me, I have a title, if not I make one up upon submitting the poem. Often though, I have to look back at the poem and go, oh, yeah, THAT one.

Titles are important in a salemenship sort of way, it draws attention to your poetry in a culture use to flash and attention (I think this arguement is actual in karmadog's thread, come to think of it ). Course, Shakespeare got away without because, well, he's Shakespeare fer cry'n out loud.

HomerPindar

Ditto.

Unless same title challenge of course.....(Hint to who ever hasn't challenged lately...)

Not throughing rocks at you, Homer....

 

[THESLEEKONE]

....Of course, Shakespeare was not really "Shakespeare" while He was Still alive.... Many People In his Time didn't care for His works; He was considered Mediocre at best, by surprisingly Large Numbers Title it "Spilt Milk" If ya wanna, a Story is a story is a story...
-=SLEEK=-

 

[HomerPindar]

Ditto.

Unless same title challenge of course.....(Hint to who ever hasn't challenged lately...)

Not throughing rocks at you, Homer....

Well, if you are that would explain things. Like all the constant headaches...

Hold it, you said throughing rocks, oh, well, that's another problem altogether. I havn't been through a rock in ages. (Unless you're counting my specially crafted bricks, but that would mean you've following my threads way too much )

HomerPindar

 

[The_Fool]

Well, if you are that would explain things. Like all the constant headaches...

Hold it, you said throughing rocks, oh, well, that's another problem altogether. I havn't been through a rock in ages. (Unless you're counting my specially crafted bricks, but that would mean you've following my threads way too much )

HomerPindar

I so hate it when I do that......Kinda like to, too, two and et tu brute?

Speaking of which. Happy Ides of March.....

 

[SeattleRain]

OK Hello! testing testing...Is this thing On?!?! As To titles, It's Purpose is to Remind the reader of the Story Quickly- It does not need to be a Direct Reference to the Subject Matter, Characters, Or even Plot- Many Great stories' Titles Have Absolutely Nothing to do with the Story at all, Making them all the More Memorable. Scattered Showers Hit the Nail on the Head- just ask her Cousin Partly Cloudy... And By th by, Hello to Everyone Else- I've been Lurking awhile- Love the Effort put into this Site- Love the Site, period.

Welcome from the great underground, SleekOne, The. Have you met SveltWalker?

Come up from the lurking darkness again real soon, it is good to see new skin, and words, of course, the words are what matters....