Synthetic Poetics, or Codes and Couplets

I've just read a couple of amazing essays on the subject of machine-written 'poetry', by a writer and computer programmer calling himself 'Smallnumberofmonkeys.'

You'll quickly grasp the thinking behind his adopted name, I'm sure!

Briefly, it seems it's now possible to define language in terms recognisable to computers and to teach them to manipulate those components into more or less intelligible new phrases, and even lines of poetry.

Rhyme, rhythm, assonance and alliteration are all programmable, along with such ideas as precedence, while context and meaning are perhaps less simple. Nonetheless, some of the remarkable phraseology - stripped of the need for context and meaning - can be highly original and provocative.

While the bare, unmodified poems produced may lack a certain well, human touch, they can be a great springboard for a poet's imagination. And the technology is developing all the time, especially with the development of 'neural' programs, able to recognise dialect, etc.

The essays are packed with useful links to other work going on in the field and to biographical information on some of the other pioneers.

Essay 1 is here,

and 2 is here.

Just imagine what an 'ironed-out' program could do to the careers of professional poets!

Roy

Everyone loves AIDA

In crafting successful sales letters, the abiding principle that just about anyone who's anyone lives and dies by is AIDA.

That is:

Attention
Interest
Desire
Action

For The Love of Aida

It's tough to keep your principles
When groping in the dark
For the magical elixir
But the choice is very stark -
You must follow these directions
Even as you disembark:
Keep clinging onto Aida in the dark.

She's your friend and inspiration,
Experts long ago agreed,
She's your roadmap and your atlas
While you're getting up to speed,
She's the way to find your fortune
Is the copywriter's creed,
So keep clinging onto Aida in the dark.

She will be your friend forever,
She will tickle and amuse,
Smiling faithfully whatever
In the literature you use
And bring customers and buyers
You need hardly ever lose,
So keep clinging onto Aida in the dark…

Dear Aida is a winner,
Quite regardless of your views
So keep clinging onto Aida in the dark.

Roy