What’s in a Title? Friday Poem

George Herbert 1593 - 1633 Image: British Literature Wiki

What’s in a title? In today’s Friday Poem, Employment, George Herbert supplied just the right phrase for my debut novel - Mortal Fire.

Choosing a title for a novel can be a strangely personal thing for authors. Some come in a flash of inspiration; others after a grindingly long process. Finding a title for a debut book is particularly fraught, especially when it is the first of a series, and each title needs to reflect, or relate to, the whole.

Along with the book cover, the title is the first thing a potential reader will see. Sometimes the title says exactly what is inside the cover, others might just hint. And still others are so whacky that they are a story in itself. And then the title often reflects the genre: Local Killer by Paul Trembling is perfect for a crime novel, while We Speak No Treason by Rosemary Hawley Jarman is spot on for a historical tale.

For my debut novel Mortal Fire - the first book in the five-book Secret of the Journal series - the title hinted at the contemporary gothic mystery with a strong historical theme. I grew up loving Metaphysical poetry and found the title within George Herbert’s poem Employment, and kerpow! it resonated what I saw as the soul of the novel. I won’t go through an analysis of the poem - each of us will take from it something they see quite uniquely - but suffice to say that death, life, and the seventeenth century are all themes that play out in the book. Here it is in excerpt: 

Man is no starre, but a quick coal

Of mortall fire;

And the complete poem:

Employment (II)

by George Herbert

HE that is weary, let him sit.
                             My soul would stirre
And trade in courtesies and wit,
                             Quitting the furre
To cold complexions needing it.

Man is no starre, but a quick coal
                             Of mortall fire;
Who blows it not, nor doth controll
                             A faint desire,
Lets his own ashes choke his soul.

When th’ elements did for place contest
                             With him, whose will
Ordain’d the highest to be best;
                             The earth sat still,
And by the others is opprest.

Life is a business, not good cheer;
                             Ever in warres.
The sunne still shineth there or here,
                             Whereas the starres
Watch an advantage to appeare.

Oh that I were an Orenge-tree,1
                             That busie plant!
Then should I ever laden be,
                             And never want
Some fruit for him that dressed me.

But we are still too young or old;
                             The man is gone,
Before we do our wares unfold:
                             So we freeze on,
Untill the grave increase our cold.

If you enjoy a contemporary gothic mystery with a dash of romance and lots of history, you can find the gold-winning Mortal Fire here - just follow the SHOP button in the main menu.