From the magazine

What makes a good title?

Ted Hughes’s River was initially The River, A Streetcar Named Desire originally Poker Night. Both were important improvements

Craig Raine
Elizabeth Taylor (Martha) and George Segal (Nick) in Mike Nichols's film adaptation of Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. Photo: Ullstein Bild / Getty Images
EXPLORE THE ISSUE 11 January 2025
issue 11 January 2025

Liszt’s compositions tend to have descriptive titles – ‘Wild Chase’; ‘Dreams of Love’ – whereas Chopin avoided titles. Thomas Wentworth Higginson wished titles on Emily Dickinson’s poems, opposed by his fellow editor Mabel Loomis Todd. They didn’t stick. Maybe this is why Dickinson is acclaimed but unread. ‘I heard a Fly buzz’ is easier to remember than 465.

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