Writing Great Titles for Your Poems, Part 2: The Title as an Invitation to the Reader

I recently picked up a book by Chana Bloch, a poet who is particularly good at writing titles for her poems. Chana was the one who suggested the title of my book The Number Before Infinity. For one of her own poetry collections, she came up with one of the best titles I know, The Past Keeps Changing, almost a Zen koan.

Chana Bloch,1940–2017. (photo by Margaretta K. Mitchell)

Just looking randomly over the table of contents of Chana Bloch’s collection Blood Honey, I spot a number of poem titles that grab my attention. The first one that arrests me is “The Messiah of Harvard Square.” In this title, she mixes the mundane with the spiritual in a way that intrigues me. Who is this Messiah of Harvard Square? I want to know.

 

Chana also has a poem in this book called “The Discipline of Marriage.” Again, a bit of a paradox. We don’t often think of marriage as being a discipline, but that’s what’s intriguing about the title. How is marriage a discipline, and what can I learn about relationships from this viewpoint?

 

Another title I like in this collection is “Wild Honey.” Anytime you have the word wild in a title, it piques my interest, and honey is something sweet and delicious, so the combination is irresistible. There is also a one-word title that makes me want to read on, “Blue.” Since we all feel blue from time to time, that title welcomes us into the poem. In a similar vein, there’s a poem in this collection called “The Naked Future.” Now that, I really want to know more about.

 

In short, Chana Bloch’s titles often beckon the reader to learn more, to unravel a paradox, or to explore a complex situation—all good ways of buttonholing readers and getting them to look deeper.

 

I picked up another poetry collection to see what titles made me want to read the poems, Carnival Evening: New and Selected Poems 1968–1998 by Linda Pastan. 

Linda Pastan (photo by Margaretta K. Mitchell)

Linda’s titles often make me eager to find out what comes next, either because they suggest interesting puzzles or the revelation of secrets, or they present a conundrum. Here are a few I really like:

 

“The Obligation to Be Happy”

“RSVP Regrets Only”

“There Is a Figure in Every Landscape”

“You Are Odysseus”

“It Is Raining on the House of Anne Frank”

“25^th High School Reunion”

“Who Is It Accuses Us?”

“Routine Mammogram”

“The Myth of Perfectability”

“The Apple Shrine”

 

Do you see what I mean? Each of these titles poses a question of a sort. The reader is engaged, wanting to find something out. What happened at her 25^th high school reunion? Was she pleased, disappointed, depressed, embarrassed, refreshed, seduced? Was the mammogram really routine? What the heck is the myth of perfectability?

Chana Bloch and Linda Pastan demonstrate that a poem title can do so much for a poem. A poem title is almost like a trailer for a movie. It should whet your appetite, and get you to want more.

Writing Great Titles for Your Poems, Part 1

Zack’s most recent book of poems, Irreverent Litanies

Zack’s most recent translation, Bérénice 1934–44: An Actress in Occupied Paris by Isabelle Stibbe

Other posts on writing topics:

How to Get Published
Getting the Most from Your Writing Workshop
How Not to Become a Literary Dropout
Putting Together a Book Manuscript
Working with a Writing Mentor
How to Deliver Your Message
Does the Muse Have a Cell Phone?
Why Write Poetry? 
Poetic Forms: Introduction; The Sonnet, The Sestina, The Ghazal, The Tanka, The Villanelle
Praise and Lament
How to Be an American Writer
Writers and Collaboration
Types of Closure in Poetry

Writing Great Titles for Your Poems, Part 1: Interview with Robert Hershon

For many poets, a title is a necessary evil, a part of the work that the writer would rather not bother with. After all, the substance of the poem is in the body of the poem, right? What’s to be gained by adding some frilly header that repeats what’s already in the poem, or that only relates obliquely to the rest of the text?

 

But titles can play an important role in bringing the reader into the poem. I enjoy the titles that the poet Robert (“Bob”) Hershon gives his poems, so I interviewed Bob recently about his ideas on titles.

Q. Do you like to title your poems?

 

Bob Hershon: I do. One thing I like about a title is that it can do the work of several lines in the poem that you can then omit. A good title eliminates the need for that “Meanwhile, back at the ranch” type of filler.

 

Q. What’s your advice for writing a good poem title?

 

BH: Something that speaks to the poem without summing it up. I’m partial to “No poetry but in things,” to paraphrase William Carlos Williams. Your title should stand out, it shouldn’t sound like everybody else’s titles.

 

Q. What do you think about poems that don’t have titles?

 

BH: When I see a poem that’s just called “Untitled,” it seems like an opportunity lost. Many poets, including writers I’ve published and whose work I like, don’t use any title at all. In that case, it’s hard to identify the poem. For all practical purposes, the first line then becomes the title.

 

Q. What do you think of simple titles or one-word titles?

 

BH: I think a title should be fun. I know that many poets I admire and like personally take a different approach and use simple, generic-sounding titles. They’re entitled to their titles.

 

Q. Are there kinds of titles you just plain don’t like?

 

BH: There’s something terribly ostentatious to me about calling a poem just “Poem.” I also don’t particularly like a title with a “This and That” structure, such as “Truisms and Inconsistencies.” That particular construction annoys me, for some reason.

 

Q. What’s a recent title you’ve written for one of your poems, and how did you arrive at it?

 

BH: Recently I wrote a poem about the brain’s inability to forget old song lyrics. Initially I had a kind of flat title for it. This morning I woke up with a different title for it in my head, “An Old Cowboy Went Riding Out One Dark and Windy Day.” Some people might recognize that as a line from the old pop song “Ghost Riders in the Sky.” But even if you don’t recognize it, the title works on its own in a different way. Adding that title allowed me to cut a line or two from the middle and tighten the poem up.

Robert Hershon’s most recent book of poems is End of the Business Day. He was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He was executive director of The Print Center for 35 years and has been coeditor of Hanging Loose Press since its founding in 1966. Among his awards are two creative writing fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Writing Great Titles for Your Poems, Part 2

Zack’s most recent book of poems, Irreverent Litanies
Zack’s most recent translation, Bérénice 1934–44: An Actress in Occupied Paris by Isabelle Stibbe

Other posts on writing topics:

How to Get Published
Getting the Most from Your Writing Workshop
How Not to Become a Literary Dropout
Putting Together a Book Manuscript
Working with a Writing Mentor
How to Deliver Your Message
Does the Muse Have a Cell Phone?
Why Write Poetry? 
Poetic Forms: Introduction; The Sonnet, The Sestina, The Ghazal, The Tanka, The Villanelle
Praise and Lament
How to Be an American Writer
Writers and Collaboration
Types of Closure in Poetry