Virtual Muse: Experiments in Computer PoetryIn this engaging, accessible memoir, Charles Hartman shows how computer programming has helped him probe poetry's aesthetic possibilities. He discusses the nature of poetry itself and his experiences with primitive computer-generated poetry programs and -- illustrated with sample computer-produced verses -- traces the development of more advanced hardware and software. The central question about this cyber-partnership, Hartman says, "isn't exactly whether a poet or a computer writes the poem, but what kinds of collaboration might be interesting." He examines the effects of randomness, arbitrariness, and contingency on poetic composition, concluding that "the tidy dance among poet and text and reader creates a game of hesitation. In this game, a properly programmed computer has a chance to slip in some interesting moves." |
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A. K. Dewdney Alan Turing amazing cigar amazing elsewhere anapest apothecary artificial intelligence AutoPoet beginning body called chess computer poetry computer's dictionary English Epigraph Gemara grammar hand Hugh Kenner human hypertext iamb iambic pentameter idea imitation input text intelligence interesting Jackson Mac Low juxtaposition Kenner kind language light light light linguistic literary logic looking Mac Low meaning mechanical metaphor meter metrical Mishnah nonsense noun output person phrase play player plurality poem's poet poetic possible problem produce Prose puter question Racter Racter's random reader result rhythm Ron Silliman rules scan Scansion Machine sense sentence Sinclair ZX81 someone sonnet Soul stress supposing light syllables syntactical syntax T. S. Eliot talk Talmud template there's things thousand tions Tournament Travesty tree trochees Turing turn verb VERBPHRASE verse voice wanted words write poems wrote