The Title to the Poem is a theoretical critical and historical exploration ofthe traditions for titling shorter poems by British and American poets from thebegi... » 

The Title to the Poem is a theoretical critical and historical exploration ofthe traditions for titling shorter poems by British and American poets from thebeginnings of printing to the present. The first six chapters are distinguishedaccording to the nature of the question a reader might ask about the poemwhich the title purports to answer. Who gives the title? Who has the title? Whosays the poem? Who hears the poem? What genre does the poem belong to? Whatis the poem about? There are complex relationships between what titlespurport to tell and what they actually tell and this is true not only oftitles so worded that they demand interpretation but also of those that appearstraightforward. Though the choice of examples aims at range and varietycertain British and American poets have been exceptionally influential in theircontributions to the course of titling in English so their work receivesspecial and repeated attention here. These poets have not only been unusuallyinnovative in modifying traditional title forms or inventing new ones but havebrought into focus fundamental issues of titling by the nature of theirexperiments. They are Jonson Wordsworth Browning Whitman Hardy FrostWilliams Stevens Auden and in our time Ashbery. «