Poem titles - First poetry forum? Forum

I'd like to see one called "A Short History of a Long Night" (Day/Month/Year/Half-hour, etc)

Or, "Hello, Persephone, Welcome to the Underworld? Some pomegranate?"

I actually have an idea for the above. :-)

~Bitter Irony

#3 Oct 21st 2006, 10:46am

Written Aesthetics

That is an awesome title.

#4 Oct 21st 2006, 11:03am

"A Short History of a Long Night" is a brilliant title.

I'm tempted to write it, but I'm not so sure I can do it justice.

#5 Oct 21st 2006, 8:38pm

Say... What does "The Surrealist Tales of Surom Road" tell you?

#6 Oct 22nd 2006, 12:51am

Nurgette

It sounds like the beginning of a spooky poem about goings on hidden behind closed doors... It's good, I can see... zombies and a werewolf or two.

What are people's views on titles that have no obvious link with the poem? I know that on some occasions there is a meaning, maybe only known to the author, but there are also times when it looks like the two may have been randomly thrown together. I can't think of any examples, but I know that I've come across some before... It's true that odd-seeming titles actually help the reader understand the poem, but I was wondering what you guys thought regarding descriptive titles v names?

#7 Oct 22nd 2006, 12:39pm

I can see the closed doors thing, but I don't know about zombies and werewolves. I'm more into the evils of real people. I guess 'surrealist' makes that a bit harder to do, but I'm pretty sure it can be pulled off. (Evidently, I'm not one of those people who believe Vampires really do exist.)

Obvious titles, like a phrase or word taken from the poem is sufficient, but lacks a certain charm. Totally abstract titles are silly, to me. I like titles that link back to the poem in a way that readers can understand, but require a bit of thought to connect them. I also think that most often, a two to three word title works the best. One word can be good, but often it's too general (ie: "Hope"). Long titles work well when the poem is particularily long, also. Calling a forty word poem "The Clock Ticks Slower in the Dead of Night" (or whatever) is a bit excessive.

#8 Oct 22nd 2006, 2:24pm

Well, first of all, keeping in mind that I completely cannot stand freestyle poetry... :-)

I say the title MUST relate to the poem, just as it must relate to a short story or a novel. It can be a distant relation, but it has to have something to do with it. If you write a poem about flowers, you don't have to call it flowers: you can call it petals or roses or thorns or something of the sort. But don't call it Sunbeams unless sunbeams are specifically mentioned.

Unless of course you want people to somehow relate flowers to sunbeams, in which case you have to be very good to pull it off.

I'm not sure how clear I'm being on this, so let's illustarate my point with two song titles (both Evanescence, sorry, it's the first thing that came to mind):

Hello--good, it related to the song very much.

Whisper--horrible, it had next to nothing to do with the song.

I don't have an example of the not-too-blatantly-related-but-still-related title...I suppose I'll have to shove in a plug for my own poem "Deception"

on that point.

~Bitter Irony

#9 Oct 23rd 2006, 8:17am

Well, to be honest, it's not really about a closed door things; it's kind of like the title says: it's about the weird things that an mountain man (jibaro) says about an old dirt road. If you read it with this in mind, I think you'll understand the meaning of the whole thing: I'm criticizing my country, Puerto Rico, as well as praising it. It's gonna be so weird, you probably won't even understand the words in the poems themselves! It's a pretty good idea, I think. I think you'll like it once I publish it.

Anyway, Dios Los Bendiga

Gabriel El Jibaro

#10 Oct 24th 2006, 7:41pm

Isabella22

I liked that closed door thing. You could write one called "Behind Closed Doors"

or maybe something like "Decieved" (sp? lol)

I think I'm gonna take my idea from above...lol!

#11 Oct 24th 2006, 7:41pm

And to be honest, I think the title should at least be a metafor, and if the reader doesn't understand it, the author should explain it somehow... however, even though and un-related title might decrease interest in a poem, it could really add a degree of mystery to it, if it's really creepy...

#12 Oct 24th 2006, 7:43pm

Isabella22

lol. hey peoples. i just posted a poem called "Exposed"? Does that sound good?

Boy I'm hungry...it's 11:15pm (it's that early?). All I've had is corndogs eww. lol...but they had mustard on them!

Anyhow..I was changing the subject. Could anyone R&R it? :(No one has yet!

--Isabella22

#13 Oct 24th 2006, 9:16pm

I Shot Mel Anne Kholi

I don't understand this thread completely. Personally, I've found that a title should come last. Perhaps that's just my thought process, but I usually determine the title of a poem as the very last thing I do.

After I have a thought, I elaborate it, find the drama/angst/conflict then put them into main ideas. After I've built the entire poem, to name I take one of 3 paths, A: I find the main idea , B: Find a reference that would create a false image of the poem, so that after the meaning is found a reader can find irony or subtle humor in the relation to the title, or most radically C: I use a characters name, or most important emotions and turn them into a poetic reference for the title.

There are more ways to name a poem than the three I have posted, obviously, but I find them the most striking personally.

But, this process for me after a poem is written. To determine a title before a poem is even written seems very limiting. Most of my ideas in a poem will change radically from the first thought to the final draft.

#14 Oct 28th 2006, 4:51pm

Yeah, I don't exactly pull titles out of the air and write a poem to go with it, but sometimes if you're given a title it's a fun/challenging thing to do to write a poem around it. Occasionally I'll have a title within writing the first few lines of the poem, but it does often get changed or altered.

As for the point of this thread... some people seem to be suggesting titles, while others are sharing titles of their work, or sharing titles of poems they only have ideas for (or is currently a WiP). So... yeah. Basically, it's just about poem titles in their entirety.

#15 Oct 28th 2006, 10:22pm

I find titles for anything bloody difficult! The 'Stripped Bare' one at the beginning didn't initially make me think angst though. But that's mainly because the first thought that came into my head was the inside cover illustration of Rammstein's cover of Depeche Mode's song 'Stripped'. And then I thought of 'The Bride Stripped Bare' which I have never read and don't plan to (merely because it's not my sort of thing).

I do like the idea of writing around a title though, either a short story or a poem. Either's good fun!

#16 Nov 02nd 2006, 12:04am

tesa131313

love the title "Stripped Bare" That would catch my eye

#17 Nov 27th 2006, 3:33pm

Fictionpress Watcher

Flame War 2006 is my title. Lets fight the flamers the civil way: with poetry!

#18 Nov 29th 2006, 11:04am

Hmmm, kinda bland. Titles need to catch attention, show that your poem is unique. The title needs not only to sort of give a hint of your poem, but it, for me, needs to be cryptically distant. I love titles. I don't write angsty poems, nor I have I read the poem in question, so I can't help you. The only seemish dark poem I wrote was about insomnia titled 'DeadHumanMachine'. My favorite title of mine is probably 'Healthy Breeds Piano Strings' or 'Black Bird Widow'

#19 Nov 30th 2006, 12:50am

I'm incredibly bad at coming up with titles. The best one I ever came up with was 'Missed Conceptions' for a short story. sigh. I have to say, I do love your username Deadtoast.

#20 Nov 30th 2006, 12:55am . Edited Nov 30th 2006, 12:56am

Why thank you :) I have been using it for years and years.

#21 Nov 30th 2006, 1:05am

Sounds like the name of a poem :P Maybe I'll steal it one day when I write something appropriate for it. It will probably never happen, because my realm has traditionally been teenage political angst that is only now progressing... maybe I'll have to settle on a short-story again :P

#22 Nov 30th 2006, 1:09am

:D I don't have a genre. I write when it comes to me. I don't write for a year and then, like tonight, I will write poems in quick sucession. I wish I had a typewriter so I could rip off the pages after each little bell ring as the papers slides and stack them in a neat, ink smudged pile. I love typwriters, but they are noisy to neighbors in dorms.

I actually don't think I have ever writen anything with deadtoast as the title, so go right ahead! :D

#23 Nov 30th 2006, 1:13am

Thanks muchly. I shall read your things. And do you have a livejournal?

#24 Nov 30th 2006, 1:33am

hmmm, a xanga. there is a link on my page. :)

#25 Nov 30th 2006, 1:54am

Cool. I wrote a poem last night :P It's not particularly good, but maybe it's amusing. You'll find it if you go to my profile page, as you know the title ;)

#26 Dec 01st 2006, 12:18am

darkstar-rising

I've almost always found titles to be rather easy to think up. I do have this tendency to fall in for contradictions though. for example:

Survivors and Casualties

Discerning the Improbable

An Albino Chameleon in Snow,

A great speaker in the land of the deaf

When less than is equal to greater than

Their zenith is our nadir

Straw-man soliloquy

And what if God were an atheist?

Unfortunately, the ones with witty titles also tend to be the poorer poems.

#27 Dec 02nd 2006, 2:52pm

darkstar-rising: "And what if God were an Atheist?" is a pretty awesome title, as is "When less than is equal to greater than". On a side note, your poem "The Y Factor" was quite funny. It was a little disappointing that most of the reviewers didn't actually understand the "44 and two" bit.

#28 Dec 02nd 2006, 8:32pm

darkstar-rising

Thanks. It is a bit disappointing that they didn't get the basic premise of the poem, but that they missed the main point but still had something to say about it means a lot to me. Ideally, I'd like all my poems to mean a different thing to everybody.

#29 Dec 07th 2006, 9:34pm

Say, what does "We Are Happy Landfill" tell you? Or how about... "Psychediliosynopsis based off of The Great Exorcism"?

#30 Jan 02nd 2007, 6:35pm . Edited Jan 02nd 2007, 6:45pm

FTL

I like simple titles, but not cliche stupid ones like "Autumn Leaves" I mean come on guys. =|

#31 Jan 14th 2007, 12:53pm

Midnight In Eden

I think your title should not be like a "summary" of the poem but add to it.

#32 Jan 14th 2007, 6:08pm . Edited Jun 03rd, 1:30am

ronshaberry

Heh... I suck a lot at titles. Of course, you shouldn't just abandon a title, because it's one of the first things that will bring in a reader. Yeah, and it definitely changes the perspective of the piece.

#33 Feb 09th 2007, 11:38am

I usually pick song titles, although "We Are Happy Landfill" came rather naturally, although I later noticed a fake Gorillaz advertisement used that title. I wonder, would that be plagiarism?

#34 Feb 09th 2007, 2:17pm

Interesting, I'm the total opposite; usually I get a weird idea, or a word or sentence and it has to be the title. Then I save it until it fits with a poem that needs it, or sometimes build the poem right from it. Losing all hold over grammar in trying to explain this, but you get my meaning? I don't exactly "determine" it, and haven't yet found it limiting. Usually, favourite titles (of mine and other people's) are those that don't give the piece away, and that further the meaning if you think about it. There's only so much you can hand readers before they become lazy! Haha.

theory }

#35 Mar 27th 2007, 4:59am

You hate freestyle poetry? Eek. And I completely disagree that the title must relate to the poem. or at least, depending on your defintion of "relate." If you mean repeat a line in the poem, or repeat a concept or idea then what's the point? That's what the summary is for. Titles of really amazing poetry are always multi-layered, or so profoundly simple that they take on a new level of meaning.

Of course that's all my opinion, feel free to criticise!

Out of interest, what constitutes freestyle poetry?

#36 Mar 27th 2007, 5:03am

"If you mean repeat a line in the poem, or repeat a concept or idea then what's the point?"

I don't think poem titles must repeat a line for the poem, but they must relate to the main idea of the poem. In other words, the title shouldn't sound like it belongs to a completely different poem. It must be obvious (okay, maybe not obvious--it must be apparent after a bit of thinking) that the title goes with THAT poem. Maybe they go together in a surprising way, but they still must go together, somehow.

For example, when I suggested "Hello, Persephone, welcome to the Underworld. Some pomegranate?"--I'm not saying you need to have that line in the poem. You don't even need a reference to Persephone, the Underworld, or Pomegranate. But make sure the poem somehow relates to the theme: i.e., Winter, separation from loved ones, getting trapped in a strange situation. You can't use a title like that for a poem about, say, the birth of your first child. It just wouldn't work, no matter how much thinking the reader does.

I'm not sure how the word "relate" could ever be understood to mean anything but its dictionary denotation, but that's my best attempt to explain it. :-)

"Titles of really amazing poetry are always multi-layered, or so profoundly simple that they take on a new level of meaning".

I have nothing against multi-layered titles, in fact, I adore them. But they shouldn't be the only multi-layered thing about the poem. Make the poem deep and profound, make the title relate to the poem, and voila, a profound title. Or work backwards and think of a profound title and then write a related profound poem, depending on which direction you prefer to work in.

Simple is good. "Death", "Pain", "Heartache", etc. are terrible. Even if your poem is about Death, Pain, or Heartache. A too general title is a kiss of death for poetry, as far as I'm concerned. Others may disagree.

~Bitter Irony

P.S. Freestyle poetry...well, everyone defines it differently. When I say I hate freestyle poetry, I mean I hate poems that lack ANY of the following: rhyme, metre, other structure (ie, syllabe counting, etc), stanzas/other construction method, clear and reasonable line divisions (If you have a word on a line of its own, you'd better have a good reason for having it there!), theme. I'm near certain that only a freestyle poem could be written with the title "Pain". Anything with a structure would demand a more specific title.

Note that I am extreamly biased in this area, for reasons I won't discuss in detail. But I know I'm not the only one who violently detests anything that makes my beloved form look like a joke--and freestyle poetry does.

#37 Mar 27th 2007, 9:58am

they must relate to the main idea of the poem. Why must they? I agree that it shouldn't be completely irrelevant, but many of my favourite poems have titles that actually extend the meaning of the piece. Without the obscurity of the title it'd be that little bit less interesting (to me). I agree with you about the profoundness of titles though, that's what I was getting at.

Your PS: ... I'm wondering why you're biased..but besides that, I agree that poetry should have SOME form of what you listed. Personally I like interesting rhyming schemes, stanza & line division and internal rhymes. I'd rather read a "free-style" poem that made me think than a sonnet that's obviously been edited and mangled to fit with the rhyme and flow/etc. I'm biased I guess, towards poetry that's a bit different. Different to what I'm not even going to try explain :-P thanks for your crit.

theory}

#38 Apr 16th 2007, 5:18am

Titles must relate to the poem because that is their purpose. They are a label for the poem, and if they don't relate to that poem, they're useless. When naming a book, the title must have something to do with the book's subject (ex: Anthem, by Ayn Rand. While the connection between the title and the story is not obvious at first, it does connect in some way). It's even more true for essays. There is little reason for that rule to be done away with when it comes to poems.

But, for those who have a lot of fun coming up with poem titles that don't have a poem attached...why not create a new form of one-line poetry? Just don't title your one-liner!

~Bitter Irony

#39 Apr 16th 2007, 9:48am