What's in a Title?

[UnderYourSpell]

From a comment I made in Tzara's Interview it seems I'm not the only one who has trouble with titles, whilst others can knock them out no bother, so this is where (hopefully) we can discuss and suggest different options that are available.
I thought that maybe we could each offer up a poem and ask for titles and the reasons for that suggestion. Personally I love puns and I'm sure there are some clever souls out there can provide some witticisms but please be as serious or funny as you like.
I'll start you off but you don't have to provide a poem to join in.

In memory lives a far away place
where seagulls mew their call
back to the shore, where I live no more
and the reeds grow thick and tall.

That lovely place I once called home
with beauty beyond compare
where I live no more, back to the shore
calls louder still now, from here.

Soon to lie in it's churchyard still
gathered home where the sky is grey
back to the shore. where I live no more
and the graves slide into decay.

Once again my soul and heart will rise
both again fulfilled with song,
where I live no more, back to the shore
to the place where I belong.

 

[Angeline]

Well as I said to you privately my imagination and titles don't really get along. I'd be inclined to title it with whatever is the real name of the location in the poem. Also is that a form? I see the repetition but I'm not getting it. (I'm hopeless without the blueprint in front of me.)

 

[Desejo]

I don't have any problem with titles for my own poems, but I haven't tried to give titles to someone else's work. For me, the title usually makes itself clear as I am writing. If I had to name this one, I would call it "Where I live"

 

[UnderYourSpell]

Well as I said to you privately my imagination and titles don't really get along. I'd be inclined to title it with whatever is the real name of the location in the poem. Also is that a form? I see the repetition but I'm not getting it. (I'm hopeless without the blueprint in front of me.)

It is a form but I won't let on just yet

I don't have any problem with titles for my own poems, but I haven't tried to give titles to someone else's work. For me, the title usually makes itself clear as I am writing. If I had to name this one, I would call it "Where I live"

But I don't live there any more and haven't been back in a very long time

 

[Desejo]

It is a form but I won't let on just yet



But I don't live there any more and haven't been back in a very long time

But you do. In your mind and heart. That's the point.

 

[todski28]

A quiet stroll

 

[HarryHill]

Titles run through my head as often as poetry, often printed on a page waiting like a challenge. Enjambalia is one that teases me. I imagine a Cajun setting.

 

[UnderYourSpell]

But you do. In your mind and heart. That's the point.

Ah gotcha I see what you mean now

A quiet stroll

thanks for that input

Titles run through my head as often as poetry, often printed on a page waiting like a challenge. Enjambalia is one that teases me. I imagine a Cajun setting.

Down by the bayou?

 

[Angeline]

From a comment I made in Tzara's Interview it seems I'm not the only one who has trouble with titles, whilst others can knock them out no bother, so this is where (hopefully) we can discuss and suggest different options that are available.
I thought that maybe we could each offer up a poem and ask for titles and the reasons for that suggestion. Personally I love puns and I'm sure there are some clever souls out there can provide some witticisms but please be as serious or funny as you like.
I'll start you off but you don't have to provide a poem to join in.

In memory lives a far away place
where seagulls mew their call
back to the shore, where I live no more
and the reeds grow thick and tall.

That lovely place I once called home
with beauty beyond compare
where I live no more, back to the shore
calls louder still now, from here.

Soon to lie in it's churchyard still
gathered home where the sky is grey
back to the shore. where I live no more
and the graves slide into decay.

Once again my soul and heart will rise
both again fulfilled with song,
where I live no more, back to the shore
to the place where I belong.

Is it an Italian sonnet? Put me out of my misery here!

 

[GuiltyPleasure]

Italian sonnet's are ABBA ABBA CDE CDE I think. Perhaps Annie has created her own form? An UnderYourSpell Sonnet. Can't wait to find out.
What ever it is it is cleverly convoluted.

 

[Angeline]

Italian sonnet's are ABBA ABBA CDE CDE I think. Perhaps Annie has created her own form? An UnderYourSpell Sonnet. Can't wait to find out.
What ever it is it is cleverly convoluted.

It might be an Anniekey (I think that's it), which is her own design. It's some kind of quatern with that shifting repetition in the third line of each stanza.

You should know. You're the one who wrote the double backwards acrostic!

 

[GuiltyPleasure]

THAT'S IT!!!! Well done! I remember when Annie birthed the Anniekey.

 

[Angeline]

THAT'S IT!!!! Well done! I remember when Annie birthed the Anniekey.

It is? I got it right? Where's my prize?! Oh Annie?

 

[GuiltyPleasure]

It is? I got it right? Where's my prize?! Oh Annie?

I'm not 100% sure - but I think so.

Be careful - the prize might be writing your own Anniekey.

 

[Angeline]

I'm not 100% sure - but I think so.

Be careful - the prize might be writing your own Anniekey.

If she makes me do it, you must too now because you gave her the idea!

Anniekeys coming up in the poem-a-week thread!

 

[GuiltyPleasure]

Back to the task in hand......Annie, why not simply "Home" - it's where you once lived, where you long for and there's an elusion to dying which is often thought of as "going home"?

 

[Tzara]

It looks like ballad stanza to me: ABCB, alternating four-beat and three-beat lines.

 

[UnderYourSpell]

Not the Anniekey and for goodness sake don't ask me to write one I've forgotten how! No this specimen isn't mine it's called a ZaniLa Rhyme (or my version of it because I think I took liberties with syllables!) can't remember where I dug it up from but I was needing a form for some poem or other and came across this

 

[Angeline]

Not the Anniekey and for goodness sake don't ask me to write one I've forgotten how! No this specimen isn't mine it's called a ZaniLa Rhyme (or my version of it because I think I took liberties with syllables!) can't remember where I dug it up from but I was needing a form for some poem or other and came across this

And you thought I could guess that?

 

[bronzeage]

A poem should be named as one would name a painting. The name of a painting is chosen either for a detail, or the frame.

This painting, "Sunday in the Park," is named for the frame:
https://encrypted-tbn1.***********/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTY6zBUubJIXOhk3yRQIWkhpB2ztm8ssE2dvS-mnk8rlzWQt6ij
It has too much detail for and single detail to serve as a title.

This painting has always been known as "The Absinthe Drinker.":

It could have been named "The Sad Cafe," or "Another Blind Date," but the name is taken from a detail.

Sometimes the artist's intentions are ignored. This painting's formal name is "A Study in Black and Gray.":

The public ignores the official title and chose a detail to remember it.

Titles are probably more important to the poet than to the reader. If one looks in index of a large anthology of poetry(think of a 10 lb. college level lit class reader), the poems are likely to be cataloged not only by title, but also first line. Any hymnal will have an index of "familiar titles," which illustrates a principle of poetry and most other arts. A title is only important if someone remembers the work and wants to find it again. Any poem which is remembered will generate it's own title, no matter what the poet may have christened it.

 

[Angeline]

That's a very interesting take, bronze. I'm glad you shared it. I always feel guilty about titles as if I'm not doing best by my poem if I don't come up with something that immediately grabs a reader.

I wonder do any of you wait a while after you've written a poem to confer a title? I almost never know the title before I write the poem and usually when I've finished my initial draft and edit, my creativity is spent. Maybe coming back to a poem a few days (or more) later yields a better title.

 

[twelveoone]

It is a form but I won't let on just yet



But I don't live there any more and haven't been back in a very long time

Where I live no more


you said it

 

[UnderYourSpell]

And you thought I could guess that? :eek

I have every confidence in you

That's a very interesting take, bronze. I'm glad you shared it. I always feel guilty about titles as if I'm not doing best by my poem if I don't come up with something that immediately grabs a reader.

I wonder do any of you wait a while after you've written a poem to confer a title? I almost never know the title before I write the poem and usually when I've finished my initial draft and edit, my creativity is spent. Maybe coming back to a poem a few days (or more) later yields a better title.

I usually go looking for it afterwards or I have some good phrases tucked away that I think would make great titles, the only trouble is I haven't written the poems to fit them yet!

Where I live no more


you said it

I like that ....... funny how other people can see what you yourself have completely missed!
Would someone else like to post a poem please? So I can play too

 

[HarryHill]

2013 challenge post 190

Mini challenge: name this poem

I walked down the hill today,
under the fence, across the field
into the green shadows
where the son's of poets
have scattered their words
like the leaves that litter the ground.

Before I traveled back
'cross field and fence and hill
searched among those left behind
and found a few of mine
then I saw in sun spot glow
a leaf I did not know.

 

[UnderYourSpell]

Mini challenge: name this poem

I walked down the hill today,
under the fence, across the field
into the green shadows
where the son's of poets
have scattered their words
like the leaves that litter the ground.

Before I traveled back
'cross field and fence and hill
searched among those left behind
and found a few of mine
then I saw in sun spot glow
a leaf I did not know.

Compost