Darwinian Poetry

Posted on July 26, 2003 in Pointers Whimsies

This is yet another poetry generator, but constructed on the principle of natural selection. You go through a series of poems selecting, as you go along, the one of a pair that pleases you most:

In all likelihood they will both be abysmal pieces of nonsensical garbage. That’s ok. All you have to do is read them both and pick the one you find more appealing, for whatever reason. Your decision might be based on a single word that you happen to like. It doesn’t matter. Just pick whichever one strikes your fancy.

I have to say that, for the most part, they were nonsensical pieces of alyrical garbage. When I peeked at the report, I noticed an interesting pattern: the majority of poems referred, in some way, to the eyes. I don’t know if this was due to the original word set which may have left out references to taste, smell, and touch or to the selection process. If it is the latter, it mirrors an experience that I have seen in much of the writing that I encounter in writing groups and online: a distinct preference for the visual sense. As I asked at Joseph Duemer’s Reading and Writing:

To what degree does this reflect the reading public at large and to what degree is it a product of the world of the computer console, I wonder, where our attentions are almost exclusively focused on our glowing monitor screens?

Would we get a different result if the poems were spoken?

I am suddenly chuckling because I realize that what I am talking about is the response of the organism to its environment. A penguin might not breed well on the Great Plains and a bison die on the Ross Ice Shelf. So, too, may be the case with a visually oriented poem that is spoken or one consisting of sounds that is merely presented on the page.

Is not Jabberwocky more fun spoken aloud?