Re: Good poetry essay from G.D.

On Monday, August 2, 2021 at 4:22:26 AM UTC-4, George J. Dance wrote:

>
A mistake that poets often make is to use the last line of a poem as its
title. (I just read another of those tonight; I won't name it, because
it doesn't matter whose poem it was.)
>
It's easy enough to make that mistake. A poet ends a poem with a very
powerful line. Because it's the best line in the poem, he decides to use
it as the title, on the idea that the most powerful line will attract
the most readers.
>
Why is it a mistake? Because a line is more powerful if one is reading
or hearing it for the first time, and less powerful if one has read or
heard it before. Every time a line is reused, it loses power;.if a
reader already knows that line, he does not have to concentrate on it
but can simply skim through it. (A skilled poet learns to work around
that, in poems where fixed lines are obligatory such as the triolet or
villanelle), by subtly changing the lines themselves, or using the lines
surrounding them to change the meaning of otherwise identical lines.)
>
So: the poet has ended his poem with a powerful line. But he then robs
the line of at least some, and possibly of all, of its power. Rather
than reading that last line closely, and thinking "A-ha" or "Oh, wow", a
reader will skim it and think "Oh, yeah" or "Sure"; which is a much
worse way to end the poem.

>
Good points....!!