As you may know, there’s been a fair amount of interest in the ability of LLMs to create poetry. I’ve done a bit of that myself with ChatGPT. The results were not good.
Then I had an idea: Why not do with poetry what I’ve done with stories? What I did with stories was give ChatGPT a short fairytale along with an instruction to use that as the basis for a new story. But the new story was to have a different protagonist, which I’d specify. The results were interesting.
I used Princess Aurora as the protagonist in the source story. When asked for a new story where Prince Harry was the protagonist, ChatGPT produced a new story that was very much like the original, except for where the protagonist was mentioned. But when the new protagonist was a giant chocolate milkshake or XP-708-DQ, hoo boy! did things change. What fun, and interesting as well: ChatGPT tells stories, and a note about reverse engineering: A Working Paper, Version 3.
Why not try the same thing with poetry? So, I presented ChatGPT with Wallace Stevens’s famous “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” and asked it to produce a poem about irises and another about AI. I did the same for “Kubla Khan.”
I’ve now taken the game to Claude, asking it to produce poems with Elon Musk, FDR, and Walt Disney as protagonists. It did so. The poems, as you can see, are not good poems. It seems to me, though, that they are bad in a way that no human would perform the task. A really good poet might refuse the task as ridiculous on the face of it. A middling poet might take it on and produce middling satire. A bad poet, with an inflated sense of themselves, might produce really bad poems, worse that Claude’s. But they’re bad in a human way.
Note that I only presented Claude with the first thirty-six lines of “Kubla Khan.” As you know there’s a yawning discontinuity between the first 36 and the last 18 lines of the poem. I wanted to spare Claude the problem of bridging that gap.
The Technocrat’s Dream (After Coleridge)
In Palo Alto, Elon Musk
A vast electric realm decreed:
Where Tesla's charging stations thrust
Through highways measureless to dust,
Down to the western sea.
So thousand cars of gleaming chrome
Beneath the falcon's wingspan roamed,
And there were factories bright with robotic drills,
Where hummed the lithium-burning hearts;
And here were server farms on desert hills,
Encoding dreams in circuit parts.
But oh! that deep Martian rift that beckoned
Up toward stars athwart the rocket's glare!
A barren place! as red and reckoned
As e'er beneath Phobos' shadow beckoned
To pioneers who dreamed to venture there!
And from this base, with deuterium flowing,
As if the planet's core were glowing,
A Starship's flame to heaven pressed:
Amid whose thrust and vapor-stress
Huge stages fell like titanium rain,
While Earth turned small upon the cosmic plane:
And 'mid these burning hours at once and ever
It carved through space, a steel endeavor.
Past stratosphere and thermal shield,
Through vacuum vast where no life stirred,
Until the red world's face appeared,
Its ancient secrets unrevealed:
And 'mid this quest Musk heard from far
The quantum computers plotting quasar!
The shadow of the mission's reach
Rippled through the market's dream;
Where neural networks sought to teach
Machines to think, machines to gleam.
It was an empire carved from light,
Where silicon dreams eclipsed the night!
FDR-Inspired Poem in the Style of Kubla Khan
In Hyde Park did FDR
A New Deal paradise decree:
Where Hudson's mighty waters are,
Past villages both near and far,
Down to Manhattan's sea.
Through thirteen years of barren ground,
Hope and purpose newly found:
And there were programs bright with promised aid,
Where flourished many a fresh-made dream;
And here were plans that would not fade,
Renewing faith in freedom's name.
But oh! that deep Depression's void that slanted
Down through the land beneath a leaden cover!
A desperate time! yet still enchanted
As courage rose, and none recanted,
While nation called to nation like a lover!
And from this depths, with ceaseless labor seething,
As if the land in newfound strength were breathing,
A mighty purpose momently was forged:
Amid whose swift and bold-emblazoned burst
Great works arose like springtime's verdant hail,
From Tennessee to California's dale:
And through these rising works at once and ever
It flowed forth momently, this tide of change.
Through city, farm, and gleaming steel it ran,
Past smokestacks reaching endless toward the stars,
Till victory crowned the common man,
And peace emerged from distant wars:
And 'mid this triumph FDR heard clear
Democracy's voice conquering fear!
The shadow of the White House tower
Stretched across the healing land;
Where was heard the growing power
Of a people's unified stand.
It was a miracle of rare decree,
A nation rising, purposeful and free!
In Burbank (After Kubla Khan)
In Burbank did Walt Disney
A magic kingdom-realm decree:
Where trains on silver rails did run
Through tunnels crafted, every one,
Up to a castle's spire.
So many acres, dreamed and planned,
With future-worlds and frontiers spanned:
And there were gardens bright with dancing lights,
Where sparkled many a fantasy-filled scene;
And here were streets alive with childhood's flights,
Unfolding worlds of what could never been.
But oh! that deep enchanted drop that slanted
Down the dark track beneath the thunder's roar!
A thrilling place! as wild and enchanted
As e'er beneath fireworks was granted
To wide-eyed children asking still for more!
And from these grounds, with ceaseless wonder teeming,
As if the earth itself were sweetly dreaming,
A mighty magic daily was performed:
Where stories lived and simple truths transformed
To living tales that danced through day and night,
Like stars that shimmer in their endless flight:
And 'mid these whirling dreams forever spinning
Rose higher still imagination's call.
Through colored paths of fancy's bright beginning
Past painted skies where wishes never fall,
Till all at once, as evening's shadows fall,
The kingdom glows with light electrical:
And 'mid this glow did Walt envision far
New realms of wonder, stretching to the stars!
The shadow of the castle tall
Touched every heart, both young and old;
Where music rose in joyous call
From parade and princess ball.
It was a vision wrought in steeled dreams,
A magic kingdom built on silver screens!
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