Surly an essay about the beauty of puns and ambiguity in poetry can still be allowed a modicum of cleverness in its title?

"Clickbait", especially "a la buzzfeed" also usually refers to the original definition: "10 great jokes that Shakespear hid in poetry–No 12 will blow your mind". And considering they have A/B tested their headlines and you consider the article worth reading, isn't the outcome arguably good, anyway?

I'd still prefer to know what I am in for, rather than be mislead to get there. And don't call me surly.

I gotta say Nautilus headlines get me every time. I'll see an eye-catching headline on HN and sure enough it's Nautilus.

They bother me because sometimes their articles are very good and others they are...subpar.

So called "click bait" titles exist long before Buzzfeed. Aldaily has been running almost 20 years, and its titles often contain some clever puns. "The good, the bad, and the..." keeps showing up in titles of academic reviews in my field. Academic also like to joke around and making fun. I once attended a seminar whose speaker is a top-notch in the field and all of us enjoyed a 5-minute monologue as good as pre-flight rants by southwest.

Agreed that the title is clickbait, but it's also quite clever.

And completely consistent with its subject matter.