To the Lighthouse: The Title of a Poem Should Never Be Ignored

It’s not uncommon in prominent haiku/tanka-related journals to read a tanka/haiku sequence whose title is taken directly from a line of its poem text. This shows that the poet pays little attention to the functional roles played by a poem’s title. For such a short poem (of  9-25 lines), every line should be fully utilized. Take Adelaide Crapsey, inventor of American Cinquain whose work was influenced by Japanese short form poetry, for example, she is known for skillfully utilizing the title as a sixth line to help communicate a mood or feeling through  intense physical imagery. Experienced poets often use a title to help set the context for the poem. The following poem by Charles Simic is an example:

Slaughterhouse Flies

Evenings, they ran their bloody feet

Over the pages of my schoolbooks.

With eyes closed, I can still hear

The trees on our street

Saying a moody farewell to summer,

And someone, under our window, recalling

The silly old cows hesitating,

Growing suddenly suspicious

Just as the blade drops down on them.

Without the first word in the title, this image-dense poem could be easily misunderstood as a “flight of poetic fantasy.” The title, especially its first word, helps figure out the context and setting, making the opening image visually and psychologically appealing to the attentive reader.

Joseph Stroud’s fine poem also successfully utilizes the title:

And I raised my hand in return

Every morning for two weeks on my walk into the village

I would see the young goat on the grassy slope above the stream.

It belonged to the Gypsies who lived in the plaza below the castle.

One day on my walk back to the mill house I saw the little goat

hanging from a tree by its hind legs, and a Gypsy was pulling

the skin off with a pair of pliers which he waved to me in greeting.

Stroud's use of the title as the speaker's response to the events portrayed in the poem is emotionally effective, and the title can be read as the conclusion of the poem, and is therefore part of the poem itself.

The following is another good example by David Allan Evans

Neighbors

They live alone

together,

  

she with her wide hind

and bird face,

he with his hung belly

and crewcut.

  

They never talk

but keep busy.

  

Today they are

washing windows

(each window together)

she on the inside,

he on the outside.

He squirts Windex

at her face,

she squirts Windex

at his face.

  

Now they are waving

to each other

with rags,

  

not smiling.

In this brilliantly-crafted poem that succeeds in telling readers about the relationship between two persons through concrete imagery of how they behave toward each other, Evans skillfully uses the title as a veiled authorial comment to stir the reader’s further reflection on the issue regarding human intimacy. Ironically, it reminds me of the concluding line from Robert Frost’s famous poem, “Mending Wall:” Good fences make good neighbors.

Now, I think it's time for the haiku/tanka community to think about the creative use 1 of the title in a poem sequence in order to increase its impact, thematic and emotive.


Note:

1 One of the most skillfully utilized titles I've known of is Ginsberg's "Written in My Dream by W. C. Williams." The form of this brilliantly-crafted poem, line breaks, and sentiments are his response to and elaboration of Williams's "The Locust Tree in Flower." In his allusive title, Ginsberg acknowledges dual authorship and presents his poem as a tribute to his friend and mentor, W. C. Williams. For further discussion on these two poems, see Herbert Kohl, A Grain of Poetry, pp. 54-7.