Write a rhyming poem comparing love to a beautiful flower:
A flower so beautiful and fair
Love can be found everywhere
Its petals so vibrant and bright
A love that will last day and night
The beauty of love, like a flower
It's a beauty that will never cower
A feeling of joy that will last
Like a flower, love stands fast
The beauty of love is so true
Like a blooming flower for me and for you
No matter the season, it will stay
Love is like a beautiful flower, in every way.
Am I the only one whose brain is fully blown by seeing stuff like this? It feels strange to look at that kind of output from an algorithm and just shrug one's shoulders with apathy.
This doesn't scan. 'Where space and time cannot remain the same' is hyper-metrical, for example. The 'flow' of a 'race' makes no actual sense. It's like a five year old's tawdry attempts at poetry in crayon. Get off the AI bandwagon for your own soul, poetry is an organic thing.
I'd say, shot rhymes with hot. Thought rhymes with bought or fought.
I'm German, and have lived in Britain, Australia and now Singapore. So my English idiolect is, of course, a bit weird. However, I would pronounce 'thought' like the London sample in https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/thought#Pronunciation They give that as /θɔːt/.
I realize that the American sample on that page does indeed rhyme with 'hot'. They give that as /θɑt/ and blame the 'Cot–caught merger' also known as the 'LOT–THOUGHT merger' which would explain everything.
• The LOT set (stop, sock, dodge, romp, possible, quality) (+ shot, hot, cot, bot…),
and
• The THOUGHT set (taught, sauce, hawk, jaw, broad) (+ caught, bought…)
(For those without the merger, there's also the CLOTH set of words (cough, broth, cross, long, Boston) which fall in either the LOT set or the THOUGHT set depending on the specific accent.)
Have it compose a poem — a poem about a haircut! But lofty, noble, tragic, timeless, full of love, treachery, retribution, quiet heroism in the face of certain doom! Six lines, cleverly rhymed, and every word beginning with the letter S!!
Sleek strands of sadness,
soon severed and shorn;
Solace sought in scissors,
slicing and scorned...
When we two parted
In silence and tears,
Half broken-hearted
To sever for years...
Compose a poem — a poem about a haircut! But lofty, noble, tragic, timeless, full of love, treachery, retribution, quiet heroism in the face of certain doom! Six lines, cleverly rhymed, and every line beginning with the letter S!
She stands so still beneath the sheers,
Snipped locks that once clung to her ears.
Solemnly she stares in the glass,
Shorn hair reveals her past, alas.
Sorrowful the secret she bears,
Still the new style she proudly wears.
it's good, first run after i relaxed from "each word" to "each line"
Write rap lyrics about having a body of wood and teeth of a horse:
--- compute ---
Verse 1:
My body's made of wood, my teeth they look like a horse
My gait is stiff and slow, I'm an anomaly of course
People stare and point, I'm a walking paradox
Bound in my wooden frame, I'm a living paradox
Chorus:
My wooden body, my horse teeth
My living paradox, I'm unique
My wooden body, my horse teeth
My living paradox, I'm unique
Verse 2:
My destiny's defined, I'm a walking rarity
A one-of-a-kind, a sight of pure variety
My actions are precise, my movements are mechanical
My wooden body's a mask, protecting my emotional
Chorus:
My wooden body, my horse teeth
My living paradox, I'm unique
My wooden body, my horse teeth
My living paradox, I'm unique
Bridge:
My wooden body can't break, my horse teeth can't decay
My living paradox will live on, I will outlast the days
Chorus:
My wooden body, my horse teeth
My living paradox, I'm unique
My wooden body, my horse teeth
My living paradox, I'm unique
Write a poem comparing love to tractors:
A flower so beautiful like the shining sheet metal body
reflecting the light though the tires are muddy
--- generate! ---
A tractor stands tall and proud, a symbol of strength
it takes its own path, it doesn't need a length
Love is like a tractor, it gives us a push
it's full of power, it can be a plus
It carries us over the hills and valleys so high
it helps us get through, no matter how we try
It can take us to places we've never been before
soaring through the sky, no need to explore
A tractor and love have so much in common
they both give us hope, they never stop runnin'
The tractor is reliable and won't ever let us down
just like love, it's always around
A tractor is more than a machine, it's a symbol of strength
just like love, it can go any length.
I still writes very banal poetry though.
I gave it the first 3 lines of a T.S.Eliot poem and it spits out very cliched, trivial poetry.
Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherized upon a table;
Let us go, through half-forgotten doorways,
To places we have never been before.
Let us explore the unknown, and find our way
To a place of peace and joy, and never stray.
Let us find a place of solace, and stay
Where we can be ourselves, and never fear.
Let us find a place of comfort, and share
The love that we have found, and never part.
Let us find a place of beauty, and bask
In the warmth of the sun, and never ask.
Let us find a place of harmony, and sing
The songs of our hearts, and never tire.
Let us find a place of contentment, and be
Forever happy, and never leave.
I've never been able to distinguish bad from good poetry. Over the years I've asked many people (including teachers) to explain it to me and they cannot. Can you? I would really enjoy understanding.
To address your criticism: To be relatable poetry must be cliched, as it is about the human experience. That is as cliche as it gets: it is about things everyone knows.
Good poetry "hits different".
Basically, it innovates and presents new similes, allegories and expressions that have peak emotional impact, meaning, the words are carefully chosen to create the highest amount of emotional resonance. Also, clichés cannot be present. It has to surprise the reader. If I say: "sky blue". That's bad poetry, because it's boring and predictable. If I say "skype blue" it is more memorable, since nobody before has ever used that before and it stands out. There is also the question of cadence. Basically, you will recognize good poetry when you see it due to how it resonates with your neural pathways related to speech and language centers.
The bit about original wording I can follow, thank you. The bit about it having to resonate is kind of a problem because it just does not :) Even if I know people find it great it just doesn't inspire anything in me. Perhaps I have to make peace with my barbarian nature.
I don't think I can, unfortunately :)
It's really a subjective evaluation, but I viscerally find GPT3's output here miles less interesting than Eliot. It needs to have some layers... or at least the appearance of having layers. Unexpected combinations of expressions and words.. yet unexpected in a way that they don't seem forced. It shouldn't be just rearranged prose. And it has to have a certain flow... when there isn't flow it has to be deliberate.
You can still like whatever poetry you like, I'm just telling you personal reaction. And even though I use some pretty loaded words like "trivial/banal", it's just how I'd describe my reaction. Not meant to be authoritative.
These lines by GPT3:
Let us go, through half-forgotten doorways,
To places we have never been before.
Let us explore the unknown, and find our way
To a place of peace and joy, and never stray.
Let us find a place of solace, and stay
Where we can be ourselves, and never fear.
The first line has potential. The second one feels slightly worse, but it could still be fine depending on what comes next.
Even the 3rd is still ok.. "explore the unknown" is a bit in a the danger zone, but it could easily be continued with something that completely justifies it.
Now this:
and find our way
To a place of peace and joy, and never stray.
I don't know, that just feels like a disappointing continuation. There's nothing unexpected about it, and it's an unoriginal sentiment said in a unoriginal way. It can be one or the other, but being both kills it for me. "peace and joy, and never stray" sounds like a forced rhyme and is a bit too saccharine without justification. And there just isn't much there.
Let us find a place of solace, and stay
Where we can be ourselves, and never fear.
The first line here is just reiterating, more or less, the previous line. Still boring. Nothing that would jolt you to attention. "Where we can be ourselves, and never fear" is more of the same, just even more unoriginal. "Be yourself" needs to have a lot more around it and be more cleverly woven into context to make it a good poem, IMO.
The rest of the poem just goes on in the same vein. Culminating in:
Let us find a place of contentment, and be
Forever happy, and never leave.
"Lets go somewhere nice and be ourselves and happy" said with a lot of generic ways.
As to your point:
To address your criticism: To be relatable poetry must be cliched, as it is about the human
experience. That is as cliche as it gets: it is about things everyone knows.
A poem can be about relatable things, I just thing it has to be crafted with more care than the GPT3 poem I posted appears to be. Again, this is mostly me rationalising my reaction... that is to say, I'm trying to put into words what is mostly an intuitive reaction.
Thank you for the detailed response! Given all of the context you give I can see why you could arrive at a conclusion that it is bad. You and the other post seem to agree it is (summarised by me, correct me if I misunderstood) about subverting expectation while still remaining relatable. It's cool in concept, but I think it just does not land for me.
The poem you linked seems very novel. I did not expect most of the wording, but it also did not make me feel anything. This is not a criticism, it is like that for all poetry I've ever read.
I suppose poetry is like all other media. I do enjoy books, shows and music. There the evaluation is much the same. It's about being novel and arriving at a point that is surprising, while not being contrived (e.g. if you could not possibly have figured out what happened given the priors). That does help me frame it. Thanks again :)
I'm glad my response was helpful in some way! And yeah, if it just doesn't land for you that's fine. :) To be honest, poetry kind of grew on me over time.
In a way I find poetry much more similar to music than to literature in the effect it has and how I perceive it.
Just wanted to add this reading of that poem. I find it brings it to life more. Not saying it's going to make you like it, but I think it can be more effective than just reading it. (Some would very much disagree with that though... including Eliot I think :D )
