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Why Computer Poetry? A great deal of poetry mystifies it's readers: It may sound pretty, but it leaves you wondering "what the hell was that supposed to mean?". Yet meaning (or the lack of it) is the one ingredient distinguishing computer generated poems from those written by humanoids. Once you take away a poem's semantic features, it's remaining defining characteristics might easily be automated in the cyber realm. For example, one of the reasons a poem might be recognized as a poem (and not prose) is that the text is often formatted into some kind of rhythmic structure. A poetic rhythm is usually achieved by matching the syllable counts in pairs of lines (couplets) or alternating lines. A syllable can be thought of as a beat: it is a natural rhythmic unit in a spoken word. In the case of songs (sung poems), the syllables usually sync up to the notes in the melody. The skill of matching up the syllable counts in adjoining (or alternating) lines of poetry might traditionally be identified as a special human talent, but it is a chore which can also be performed by poetry software. The fact that no computer can understand human language shouldn't present much of a problem: many songs and poems seem meaningless anyway!
Computer-generated Poetry with ROBOPOEM: Robopoem is a computer program which creates poetry out of random words and user input. The computer algorithms powering Robopoem analyze INPUT words to determine their rhythmic structure and rhyming characteristics. Based on these properties, a random selection is made from a pool of potential words which have the desired syllable counts and rhyming structure as requested by the user in a Settings panel.
Poem-generating algorithms:
For more information about the Robopoem poetry-building functions read the poetry generator functions section of the Cut'n'Mix User Guide. The basic robo-poetry process is available as a free online application: ROBOPOEM ONLINE DEMO |
Try the online demonstration of the ROBOPOEM poetry algorithm:
The online version does only simplified poetry-building chores: it uses a simple rhyming couplet scheme. For more complex automated poetry algorithms, try the ROBOPOEM functions found in the Cut'n'Mix word processing application (described below). The Robopoem poetry algorithm is now a part of the latest release of the Cut'n'Mix Word Machine application. In addition to automatic poem generation, Cut'n'Mix provides:
Cut'n'Mix with Robopoem is free to try for 7 days:  Download Cut 'n' Mix 5.3(6.1 MB, Windows XP or Vista required. This installer contains a fully-functional 7-day trial. For continued use beyond the trial period, a license key can be purchased for $14.99. Purchase instructions are contained in the application, or check the licensing page.) 
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