“First sentences are doors to worlds,”
(Ursula Le Guin in her essay The Fisherwoman’s Daughter.)
Hello pub regulars!
Welcome to another Poetics prompt. We are all book lovers, isn’t it! We may not remember the first book we read (surprisingly, I do…it was Noddy Goes to Toyland) but we all do remember some of the most interesting opening lines of the books we have read. Who can forget, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” (A Tale of Two Cities), “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife” (Pride and Prejudice), “Call me Ishmael” (Moby-Dick) and “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit” (The Hobbit).
Classic opening lines like the above hook the reader’s interest and set the tone for what follows. They cast a spell on the readers, grab their attention and in a way foretell what is to come later.
“If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.” (Catcher in the Rye by J D Salinger) Lines like these shock us, pique our interest and intrigue us.
An iconic first line is usually as important as an eye catching cover. It invites the reader in, stoking their curiosity and setting the tone and tenor for the rest of the story. First lines are sometimes shocking, funny, sad or mysterious. Some are so disorientating that you have to read on to figure out what’s happening—or even who’s talking. Opening lines are oft so written to grab the attention of the reader. Whatever the angle, they’re worth remembering.
We, as poets, also often agonize over our first line when we sit down to write. We want to entice our reader to immerse themselves in our verse. Wordsworth’s “I wandered lonely as a cloud“, Dylan Thomas’s “Do not go gently into that good night“, Emily Dickinson’s “Because I could not stop for death” and Eliot’s “Let us go then,you and I” come to mind. For novelists the task is even more daunting. After all, the opening sentence sets the stage for exploration of the writer’s world and keep the reader interested till the last page.
As you may have guessed, today we are going to play around with some interesting opening lines. But with a twist. I am sharing below some short opening sentences for you to use as the closing line of your poem. Just as we do in Prosery, you can use punctuation in between as well as enjambment. Please do mention the author and their work in your post. I hope you enjoy this challenge.
The following are some opening lines. Please choose one as the closing line of your poem.
- “Here is a small fact: You are going to die.“
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
2. “It was a pleasure to burn.”
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
3. “All this happened, more or less.”
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
4. “History has failed us, but no matter.”
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
5. “They shoot the white girl first.”
Paradise by Toni Morrison
6. “I write this sitting in the kitchen sink.”
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
7. “The first thing I remember is being under something.”
Charles Bukowski, Ham on Rye
8. “This is the saddest story I have ever heard.“
Ford Madox Ford, The Good Soldier
9. “I was looking for a quiet place to die.”
Paul Auster, The Brooklyn Follies
10. “I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice.”
John Irving, A Prayer for Owen Meany
For the first time visitors to our pub:
- Please write a poem to the prompt on your blog.
- Share the link of your post at Mr. Linky below.
- Link back to this post so that others can visit dVerse.
- Do read the other poems shared at Mr. Linky. After all we are here to read and reciprocate.
- Mr. Linky will remain open till 3.00 pm (EST) Thursday, 26th February.
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