Poetry and AI

Lately there’s both a lot of shoulder shrugging, and a lot of fear around generative AI making inroads into creative endeavors. Everybody seems to have some opinion about it, from Wow, so cool! To  OMG! It’s going to take over! So of course, I had to try out a few things to see how well generative AI could reproduce one of my creative loves, poetry. Below is a very shortened run-down of my wrangling with ChatGPT and poetry. I started out in a general way. So …

First request: Write a poem of 12 lines.

Response:

Within the depths of a quiet mind,

Lies thoughts that wander and unwind,

Like stars that shine in endless space,

Or waves that crash on shores in grace.

 

With each breath and every beat,

Life moves on, without retreat …

This trite poem went on for 6 more lines.

Second request: Create a non-rhyming poem of 12 lines in the style of Shutta Crum.

Response:

In fields of amber, whispers dance,

Through verdant meadows, shyly glance.

Butterflies, with fragile grace,

Paint the canvas, a vibrant chase…

More of the same, for 12 lines. All rhyming, all pretty saccharine. (And I pray, NOT in my style.)

Third request: Does the poem you just wrote rhyme?

Response:

Apologies for the confusion. Upon reviewing the poem, I see that there are unintentional instances of rhyming. Here’s a revised version that adheres to the non-rhyming style:

In fields of amber, whispers sway

Through verdant meadows, softly play.

Butterflies, with delicate grace,

Paint the canvas, a vibrant chase …

Now, let me cut to the chase. Despite repeated attempts to get AI to write a non-rhyming poem it could not. Although it apologized nicely after I pointed it out each time.

Finally, it dawned on me that, perhaps, somewhere in its definition of a poem was the stipulation that a poem must rhyme. So, I asked it if all poems must rhyme. “Well, no … the decision to use rhyme or not in a poem is a matter of personal artistic expression …” was its reply. Then I asked it about how I should request a poem that doesn’t rhyme. I did this, thinking that my requests were the problem. But no. It told me to specify that I wanted a poem “without intentional or consistent rhyming patterns.” So I used that wording. Guess what happened. Yup. Responses still rhymed.

My next request was to define a poem.

I did get back a reasonable answer mentioning figurative language, metaphors, symbolism, and exploring many issues of the human condition. Nothing about rhyme. I have yet—despite many tries—gotten it to produce a non-rhyming poem. (If any of you out there has success, let me know how you fashioned your request.)

Okay … that’s the saga of my wrestling with ChatGPT. Other than that, I should mention it gave a pretty succinct description of my poetry when I asked it how my poetry compared to what it was writing: “Her (Shutta’s) poems often capture the beauty of nature, evoke a sense of wonder, and employ vivid imagery …” and “a sense of movement and liveliness .…” with “elements of  mystery and contemplation …” which “invites reflection.”  Okay. I’ll take that. But the poems A. I. came up with were, I believe, a far cry from all of that.

So, how do I feel about it overall? I don’t think it is going to displace the need for creative folks to make art. Or satisfy the hunger on the part of the public for fulfilling art. At least not in this iteration of AI—if it grows and learns to become more subtle, that’s another story. Humans are able to put something ineffably genuine into our work that AI can’t replicate. However, I think it can be handy for a few things, such as generating comparables when doing a query, or helping to unblock writer’s block by listing a few ideas. Just be VERY specific in making a request of it—it has admitted to making things up! And do let me know if any of you ever get it to write unrhyming poetry!