A Consideration of Title-Names in the Poetry of Donne and Yeats

John T. Shawcross
1983 Names  
Each name obviously brings a picture or a concept, an attitude or a whole range of attitudes immediately to the fore. George Spivas. Klockius. Rowland Woodward. Probably nothing happened, for most people do not know (I think) a George Spivas; and only a few will have an association with the other two. Klockius, which is the title now given to an epigram by Donne, is taken from the appearance of the name in the two-line poem. It leads the general reader nowhere except as the sounds sugges~some
more » ... nd of meaning, or the form suggests some kind of status or characteristic, or the etymology suggests a kind of punning substruct. The sounds may associate for some a clucking sound (perhaps in disapproval) or "clock" (though such association seems to have no merit and is probably obviated by its spelling with a k). The Latin ending points us to a fictionalized or generalized name and to a possibly higher social status for the person intended. The etymology may involve the Dutch kloek, meaning a "sly person." We as readers may thus be prepared for something involving disapproval of someone of higher social status, who is hidden behind a pseudonym, but we probably have no sense of an etymological concept, if one was intended. The epigram reads: Klockius so deeply hath sworne, ne'r more to come In bawdie house, that hee dares not goe home. Names, 31, No.
doi:10.1179/nam.1983.31.3.159 fatcat:t2nana6xizctvmn2mhonqgqdnq