by Christine Swint
Place in poems — who needs a GPS device when we’re grounded in detail?
Lately as I’ve been driving from one place to another I’ve started jotting down interesting town names and street signs: Tulip Lane, Sleepy Hollow Road, Famous Raymond’s Hot Boiled Peanuts, The Best Little Hair House in Georgia (a hair salon!) and the list goes on.
In her book, Writing Alone and with Others, Pat Schneider suggests: “Write using a town name to get started. Use specific names. ‘A small town’ will not show itself to me as clearly as will ‘White River Junction,’ ‘Mansfield,’ or ‘Platt’s Corner.’”
Many of us remember Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem, Kubla Khan, because of the evocative place mentioned in the first line:
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round:
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.
Specific place names allow the reader a more concrete vision of what the poem is relating. In the first stanza of her poem The message of crazy horse, Lucille Clifton lets us know exactly what Crazy Horse sees in his mind’s eye with words “the Black Hills hooped around me.”
I could describe my world as metro Atlanta, suburban Fulton county, the Chattahoochee hill country or the foothills of the Appalachians. Each name conjures a different mood, a different attitude toward the subject of the poem.
As you ride the bus, the train or walk city streets, pay attention to shop names, the names of subway stops, restaurants, towns and streets. Maybe you’ll even make up your own place, along the lines of Gabriel García Marquez’ Macondo, or William Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha County.
If you like, you can post comments here about interesting place names you come across as you journey through your day.
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This was a really wonderful post… I rarely get so specific in my poetry, but I can see the value of it now. As I get older and my writing matures as well, details can be invaluable in bringing life to words on the page… so, thanks for this!
As I think back, I grew up with some wonderful place names: Indian Steps, Delaware Gap, Accomac Inn, Rehmeyer’s Hollow… loads of inspiration here!
Travelling in Somerset last year, and researching my family history there, reminded me of T S Eliot with just about every new village – Midsomer Norton, etc
I think the English have wonderful place names. Another favourite was a village where our friends have a small holding – Frisby on the Wreake
These are great names. I’m so glad you’re sharing such intriguing places with us.
Each one of these names evokes a different repsonse in me. I’d love to read any poems based on or including these locations. Thanks for offering them to us.
No Xanadu here, but close!
There is a hair salon in Old Orchard Beach, Maine with the name of: Curl Up and Dye.
This was a great prompt for NaPoWriMo; I was really surprised by how it took hold in my mind and I kept thinking about it after I read it. Here’s the result:
http://chicklegirl.blogspot.com/2008/04/napowrimo-16-yakima.html
i’m from atlanta, too. i’m in Korea right now, so it’s really refreshing to be reminded of those names. here’s something…
Mid-Afternoon
Linda, thanks for more place names. I’m making a collection! Curl up and Dye…they have quite a sense of black humor….
And thanks for linking your poems, senzatema and chicklegirl. I’m glad something here sparked your creativity.