An 'intertitle' is a tool that was traditionally used in (especially silent) film making. The text screen would often fill in information such as speech, sounds or information for the viewer to help them better understand what is going on in the film. Nowadays with the developments in filmmaking they are more likely to be a stylistic choice than a necessity, replaced by captions or simply being able to record what a character is saying.
In relation to my project they were suggested in a tutorial as a way of incorporating the poem better into my animation. This is an idea that I really liked and developed into my final animation.
The Phantom of the Opera (1925)
Nosferatu (1922)
