My painter friends have told me in the past they have ‘problems’ giving their paintings titles, not that I don’t mull over a title or two myself but it seemed to me strange for people to lack imagination with a few words when they are so brilliant with oils and water colours. And not that I don’t like the simple titles that name a picture of a tree ‘Tree in…’, or if its a moon ‘Moon Over…’ there is a great deal to be said for the simple, straightforward title.
Of course many writers don’t have a clue about titles and so many poems have no title at all so they are called after their first line. Shakespeare did not entitle a single one of his sonnets and most of them today only have numbers. When it comes to books though, writers hit the mark again and again and sometimes the title is the best part of the book (Of Human Bondage is a case in point). The titles conjure up an immense history, have a stature all their own from The Wasteland and A Shropshire Lad (two brilliant twentieth century collections of poems) to The Agony and the Ecstasy or the Moon and Sixpence to name but two books about painters.
One day I might suggest a title or two to my painter friends, see if they like my suggestions.