Wednesday, April 17, 2013

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.

4 comments:

  1. To the best of my knowledge, Ray Rasmussen's Frogpond article, titled "A Title Is A Title Is A Title, or Is It? — The Unexplored Role in Haibun," is the first and, sadly, only article on this critical issue. However, he doesn't fully explore the functional roles played by a haibun's title, dealing mainly with the types of titles.

    Below is an excerpt, which can be accessed at http://www.hsa-haiku.org/frogpond/2010-issue33-3/essay2-haibuntitles.html

    Intuitively, a title is important; otherwise, why have one? An examination of a random selection of recently published haibun by 112 different writers [2] revealed that 97% have titles. It may be that the almost universal use of titles is simply an early orthodoxy adopted because writers feel a need to add one to what is, after all, a very short story. Perhaps haibun will at some point follow the practices of tanka and haiku. But given that most writers include titles in their haibun, what strategies do they employ when doing so?

    Types of Titles

    Two categories were adopted in classifying the 112 haibun:

    Denotative Titles: These are words or phrases that provide a direct and obvious context for the prose and haiku. Examples include place names (“The London Bridge”) or descriptions of an experience (“A Walk by the Lake”). Denotative titles may cite certain objects that are important in the piece, they may provide a succinct summary, or they may simply repeat key phrases or words in the prose or haiku3

    Connotative Titles: These contain an allusion—a reference to another writer’s work, to a significant place or time, or to symbols or archetypes.

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  2. 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.

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  3. I find the title the most difficult part of writing a haibun, Chen-ou; it is often difficult to avoid repeating what is contained in the body of text, while not straying so far from the content that the reader is unable to see any connection.

    marion

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    Replies
    1. Marion:

      A simple 'rule:' the title can add one more layer of meaning or provoke the reader to see the poem from a different angle.

      Thanks for the read and for sharing your thought.

      And look forward to reading your work.

      Chen-ou

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