Sara Baxter | April 2022

Volume 54 Number 3, February 2022

Topic

The evolution of the computer-generated poem and its impact on poetry.

I. EDUCATIONAL SETTING

Although this article can benefit students in a variety of settings, I see it creating the most buzz in an undergraduate creative writing course. The realization that technology might remake our vision of what poetry is makes the genre less intimidating than it can sometimes appear. What better way to give a sense of power to students who often feel disenfranchised in the realm of poetry than to show them that the existence of poetry could be threatened by botpoet.com?

II. LESSON OBJECTIVE

Perhaps the most provocative moment in Lee’s article is when he explains that “if a student brought [the computer-generated poem] ‘A wooden danger’ without explanation into an MFA workshop, it would be received as the product of human effort”—reminding us that questions like “What makes a poem a poem?” “What makes a poem good?” and “Who decides?” do matter (p. 64). Lee throws a wrench into our preconceptions of what poems should be by presenting an experiment involving two “heavily misidentified” poems: a computer-generated poem believed to be written by a human by 62% of respondents and a human-generated poem believed to be written by a computer by 75% of respondents (p. 65). What the experiment and consequent discussion reveals is not so much an answer to Lee’s questions, but an invitation to ask them.

III. BROADER DISCUSSION POINTS

Lee asks: “Does a computer-generated poem have meaning?” First he suggests that the answer is “‘no,’ since a poem-generating algorithm lacks the capacity to intend poetic meaning” (p. 66). Another possible answer, he later admits, is “yes.” or “maybe” considering that, as we see in the found poem, “much of the validation of an object as art relies upon the mind interpreting it as such” (p. 67). Lee’s complicated question forces poets to consider the roles the writer and the reader play in the process of making meaning. Similar conversations are happening in all corners of the art world, but this is especially the case for, as Lee suggests, those studying and writing found poetry.

IV. POTENTIAL ACTIVITIES

After reading and discussing Lee’s article, a poetry writing session and follow-up reflection activity can ensure that students are making connections between their answers to Lee’s questions and what those answers might mean for their poems. For example, before writing a new poem, students might ask: “Does meaning-making rely solely on my (the poet’s) intent, or, is meaning, at least in part, the responsibility of my reader?” After writing, they might ask: “How did thinking about Lee’s article impact my poetry-writing process and the resulting poem?”

Writing a found poem, such as an erasure poem, is a good next step for exploring these questions further. Since the process of crafting a found poem usually requires the poet to give up some control of meaning-making to chance operations, practicing this process can help solidify the practical implications of Lee’s questions.

V. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

A. “What Makes a Poem…a Poem?” by Melissa Kovacs (YouTube)

B. Why Poetry by Matthew Zapruder

C. Voyage of the Sable Venus by Robin Coste Lewis

D. Zong! by M. NourbeSe Philip

E. Representative Works: 1938–1985 by Jackson Mac Low

F. “A Process of Illumination: Conversations about Erasure Poetry” (wfop.org)

VI. CONCLUSION

Lee’s article provides an opportunity to dig deeper into the practical matter of what makes a poem a poem. Perhaps a poem is a poem because of its associative qualities as suggested by Shuan Sim: “human-like poetry trumps computer-like poetry [in its] coherence of ideas” (p. 65). Regardless, as Lee points out, “it seems difficult to discount literature generated by algorithms as having meaning, provided that a reader (or group of readers) find meaning in that literature” (p. 68). Although Lee’s article provides more questions than answers, it does remind us that art is what we make of it and our careful consideration of these broader questions can have an enormous impact on how, why, and what we write.

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Sara Baxter   holds an MFA in Creative Writing with focus in Poetry. Her poetry can be found in literary journals such as Coastal Shelf and Ninth Letter. She teaches creative writing and English composition at Miami University and Indiana University East.