Wind whipped branches stir my soul
caught in illumined path shed by moon.
Sunken alone, I battle with desire.
A single note of the lime tree sings,
rippled with ripeness, love’s nectar flows.
I shake my head on the crowded quay.
Thou willst convnce this dear virgin
through thine copious tears,
to publicly proclaim our love and joy.
Written for Thursday’s MTB at dVerse, the virtual pub for poets around the globe.
Today Bjorn asks us to use AI in the creation of a poem. PLEASE do real below to see how my poem was written, using Artifical Intelligence!
It used to be, teachers worried about students plagiarizing by copying materials from a library; then from materials gathered by Google; and now, enter AI platforms that produce entire papers/essays/poems.
I used this AI site in writing my post today: https://sites.research.google/versebyverse/
How this AI site works or how I think it works and how I used it!
1) You select 1 to 3 poets from a list they provide. They will be your muse. I chose only one: Amy Lowell.
2) You write your original first line to begin your poem, and enter it on the site. I wrote “Wind whipped branches stir my soul.”
3) You click on the blank line provided (called Verse 1) and the site generates about six lines in the style of the poet(s) you chose.
4) You can use one or some of these lines; or click refresh and you get another list of lines. You continue doing this until you’ve chosen enough lines for the length of poem you want and then click Poem Complete.
5) The site then gives you the poem “you’ve written” – your first original line followed by lines the site provided, in the style of the poet(s) you chose.
6) The site provides a lovely image of “your” formatted poem.
7) At the bottom it says “Composed by User. Inspired by Amy Lowell. Composed in Verse by Verse.”
Here is the “poem” with my first line, the AI site Verse by Verse “wrote” for me. (I refreshed a number of times to get these individual lines).
Wind whipped branches stir my soul
Caught from a slide while the moon shed,
Sunken alone her battle with its desire,
A single note of the lime tree sing,
Streak with ripeness, with the fruit
She shook her head, and on the crowded quay
Could force this Dear Virgin through thee tears.
Clotilde had been with love and joy.
Now you can look back at the poem I posted above and see the edits I made from the AI version.
NOTE: Amy Lowel (1874 – 1925) was an early champion of free verse. According to Wikipedia “Lowell was said to be lesbian, and in 1912 she and actress Ada Dwyer Russell were reputed to be lovers. Russell is reputed to be the subject of Lowell’s more erotic works, most notably the love poems contained in ‘Two Speak Together’, a subsection of Pictures of the Floating World.” Image is Amy Lowell.
lillian the home poet 
Love your poem, specially the second stanza with the lime tree singing. There is a difference in the mood and format between the poet writing it and the one generated by the AI. The poet skills come through, with the final outcome.
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I agree, Grace. AI cannot get anywhere near the mood, atmosphere and nuances of a poet. It gets its rhymes from a rhyme dictionary, which means they are often nonsensical.
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Kim: and thank goodness for that! How sad would it be if AI “topped” the poet!
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Thank you, Grace. I must admit….I became consumed with this prompt. I actually enjoyed picking lines….adjusting….seeing what AI would do. I think it most interesting when the two are put side-by-side. Glad you liked mine better! 🙂
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I absolutely LOVE this! 😍 The use of lush language especially; “A single note of the lime tree sings, rippled with ripeness, love’s nectar flows. I shake my head on the crowded quay,” .. gives way to several interpretations that transcend the bounds of eroticism. Gorgeously rendered, Lillian! ❤️❤️❤️
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Thank you, Sanaa. Glad you enjoyed. It was quite a prompt to work with!
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I agree, it was a challenging prompt to begin with! ❤️❤️
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One of the problems of asking AI to write a poem is that they use other poets’ voices, because they can’t use anything modern for fear of plagiarism, and they actually steal bits of poems and use the original archaic language, which is so out of place these days. Personally, I dislike that kind of poetry, it’s stilted and unnatural to use words like ‘willst’ and ‘thine’. However, there are some lovely lines in your poem, Lill, especially:
‘A single note of the lime tree sings,
rippled with ripeness, love’s nectar flows.’
I shake my head on the crowded quay.
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Kim, I agree 100%. Using AI was an interesting experiment….but one I think I willst not repeat 🙂
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your edits have smoothed out the metallic AI and allow Lowell to come through via you – especially in that second stanza.
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Thank you, Laura. I must admit, I liked the “lime tree” line the best.
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I’m afraid I agree with Kim. AI picks up worn-out images and over-used symbols, sticks a few of them together and calls it a poem. It has made me realise how bad they are and to take care in my own writing to avoid them!
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It’s okay, Jane. I agree with her too! 🙂 But I did find this prompt an interesting one to experiment with. I’d heard about AI, condemned it before I even tried it, and then condemned it after I tried it too.
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Ha ha! That’s the definition of being open-minded 🙂
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I like the result, but I think it takes a lot of editing… just a tip, you can actually decide to write your own line between the one you’ve been given, and you can also edit the lines that are given generated… so it is really just another tool I think.
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Nice one. Luv the photo too.
Happy you dropped by to read mine
Much💜love
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How lovely to see Amy remembered. A very important writer often overlooked sadly in recent times. Similar to the wonderful Gertrude Stein who also was light years ahead of her time.
Indeed both ladies were far far innovative than many overvalued males and females of their time or our time
JD
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Exactly!
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