Your Poem's Title Is a First Line, Not a Label

Most contest titles are labels that repeat the poem, and the repetition costs the entry before it starts. A judge on the three jobs a title can do, the four kinds that fail, and a ten-minute test to find the title that earns its place.

In a contest pile of two hundred entries, the title is the first thing I read, and in about half of them it is a label that tells me exactly what the poem is about to say. 'Grief', 'Love', 'The Sea', 'My Father'. The title has done the poem's first job before the poem has started, and the poem is already behind.

A title is not a label. It is a first line, and a first line has to earn its place by doing work the poem cannot do itself.

The three jobs a title can do

Job one: set the frame. The title tells the reader where to stand. 'At the Bus Stop' puts the reader in a place before the poem starts. 'After the Diagnosis' gives the poem a timeline. The title is doing the work of the first line so the first line can do something else.

Job two: add information. The title says something the poem cannot say without breaking the voice. 'For My Daughter, Who Is Three' is information the poem needs but cannot say in the poem's own words. The title is the poem's footnote.

Job three: create the gap. The title promises one thing and the poem delivers another, and the space between them is the poem. 'The Perfect Day' over a poem about a disaster is the gap doing the work.

The four kinds of title that fail

Failure one: the label. 'Grief', 'Love', 'Hope'. The title is the subject, and the subject is the one thing the reader does not need to be told.

Failure two: the first line repeated. The title is the first line, or a summary of it, so the poem starts twice. 'The Day the Rain Came' over a poem whose first line is 'the day the rain came' is a poem that has already said its best thing.

Failure three: the explanation. 'A Poem About My Grandmother Who Died' is a caption, not a title. The title is explaining the poem instead of opening it.

Failure four: the decorative title. A title that is chosen because it sounds poetic rather than because it does a job. 'Whispers of the Eternal' over a poem about a bus ride is decoration, and decoration is the thing a judge skips.

The ten-minute test

Here is the test I use on my own titles. Take the title and the first line and read them together. If the title adds nothing to the first line, the title is wrong. If the first line adds nothing to the title, the first line is wrong. The title and the first line should be doing different work.

Then take the title and the last line and read them together. If the title tells you what the last line will say, the title is a spoiler. A good title and a good last line should be in conversation, not in agreement.

A worked example

Bad title: 'The Empty Chair'. The poem is about an empty chair. The title has done the poem's job.

Better title: 'Saturday Morning'. The poem is about the empty chair, but the title gives the poem a time and a place, and the chair does the rest. The title is the frame; the poem is the picture.

Where poets waste the title

The trap is the title that is the poem's thesis. 'Why I Left' is a title that has already answered the poem's question. The reader does not need the answer before the question; they need the frame that lets them hear it.

If you want to see titles that work, the forms library has examples across the board, and the ending post shows how the title and the last line should talk to each other. When yours is ready, the contest window is open. The title is not the name of the poem. It is the poem's first move.

Keep reading

For the craft side, the titles module covers the deeper method. The imagery module is the page to read next, and the contest is where the work goes when it is done.

By Writory Editorial, for Writory.

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