Virtual Muse: Experiments in Computer Poetry (Wesleyan Poetry Series) [Hardcover]

Charles O. Hartman (Author)

Book Description

Series: Wesleyan Poetry Series | Publication Date: September 20, 1996

A poet-programmer explores the intersection of reading, writing, and computing.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

While it's the brainy, chess-playing computer that steals national headlines, Hartman is here to tell us that there are other machines (and human instigators) busy at work on metrical beauty and imagery. Writing in a voice that, thankfully, is neither geeky nor zealous, Hartman, a poet (Glass Enclosures) and professor of English at Connecticut College, lays out the basics of both programming and versifying, then introduces several programs he and colleagues, e.g., Jackson Mac Low and Hugh Kenner, have come up with to produce poetry. Essentially, these programs are random, and sometimes not so random, word generators. Lyrics pour through them much like radioactive dye flows through the veins of a body, illuminating the operation of a complex system, in this case, language. While such tracking captures the logical side of the writing process, it cannot touch the emotional. Until the day a processor becomes enamored of the bytes coursing through it and suddenly interrupts a spreadsheet to generate a sonnet, it is the human, notes Hartman in the cases explicated here, who tells the machine how and when to create. That said, this exploration will fascinate readers curious about what makes poetry, and how.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Booklist

Computers can play chess. So, can they write poetry? As Hartman points out, even people who don't read poetry uphold it as a test of true intelligence: "The ability to write poems is the talisman by which we'll know that computers have really arrived." In this fascinating book, Hartman explores what he has learned of human poetry by attempting to create computer poetry programs and, further, by attempting to write a single poem--a dialogue of mind and body--with a computer as compositional partner. As he describes his own process, he also engages us with the intricate questions he raises about what makes poetry work or not work. An absorbing, authoritative, and astonishingly accessible book. Patricia Monaghan

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 164 pages
• Publisher: Wesleyan (September 20, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0819522384
• ISBN-13: 978-0819522382
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,449,463 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars fabulous book, October 14, 2009

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Nathaniel Smith (midwest, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Virtual Muse: Experiments in Computer Poetry (Wesleyan Poetry Series) (Paperback)

Using it for my undergraduate thesis; it's lucidly written, incredibly informative, and very enjoyable. Feels completely relevant in 2009 despite being published some time ago. Highly recommended.