Emerson, Whitman and Thoreau are known as the American Transcendentalist Poets. Some of the main themes of these writers are:
-Nature and The Woods
-Solitude
-The Self: The Self can "rise above" circumstances (which is what transcendentalism means)
Question:
1) Do you see these themes in these poems, and why?
2) Compare these poems to the Ted Talk (Can a Computer Write Poetry), and discuss whether
Computer can actually write poetry.
3) Comment on each other's Blog comments
This is Due Friday along with a general paragraph on how you felt about the poems.
5 points for the paragraph
5 points for the blog entry (some of you will need to make more than one entry).
These themes are present in most, if not all, of the poems in the packet. The poems written by Emerson included in the packet pertain to a variety of immersions in "self". These forms of thought in writing create what could be considered to be several different, though similar, forms of transcendence. Whitman's poems also evoke a sensation of the exploration of self, but these ideas are conveyed differently than Emerson, and include images of forest and nature. The reader is also lead, in my opinion, to feel the subject is having these thoughts and making these choices on his own creating an overall tone of mental isolation or solitude. Thoreau's writing is similar to Whitman's in both the emersion in thought, consideration of self and the attention to nature.
ReplyDeleteThese poems cannot truly be compared to computer written poetry, as they create a connection of emotion with the written and reader that a computer cannot create. Poetry written by commuters is not authentically written by computers as a program and selection of words must be created by a human before the computer can begin to compose poetry. Computers may be able to write poetry according to the definition of the word but they are ultimately unable to convey true emotion as a human writer can.
Liked your idea that although computers "can" write poetry, yet they absolutely cannot. I think Whitman was much more Earthy than the other two, but he considers his Earthiness "spiritual". I might argue that it isn't spiritual at all, but rather a justification for a particular lifestyle. I might also argue that Thoreau's period of isolationism was a type of connection to nature which might be considered somewhat spiritual.
ReplyDeletePeople need poetry in there life. If poetry wasn't important we wouldn't create themes and patterns to assemble our words. In Emerson, Whitman and Thoreau's poems these themes exist in a majority of them. The feeling of emotions in these poems were very powerful which is the problem with computers writing poetry. Computers writing poetry has no feeling in them. The only feeling that could be present is the readers understanding of the poem. The computer doesn't have any intentional feelings to be felt. I think computers can write poetry but there's no point.
ReplyDeleteIn almost all of these poems the overall theme of nature is very present. Almost all of them mention some kind of natural phenomenon or object. Many talk of processes in nature along with specific objects. As for solitude, many of the poems give an aurora of peace and calm which are often associated with solitude. Nature is an abundant source of peace and calm so it makes sense to connect the two for a tone in the poems. Along with the feeling of solitude comes the idea of "the self". When someone must face an obstacle or problem alone they must use only the resources and knowledge they have. This brings the idea of self sufficiency and knowledge is power. Many of the poems also contain personal thoughts and feelings of the subjects which portrays the solitude and the self because no one else can think for them or understand what they are feeling or thinking in the same way.
ReplyDeleteIn regard to the video my answer is no. A computer can obviously string words together to form some kind of structured writing, but it can not understand the meanings and feelings of the emotions behind the words. True poetry contains feelings and emotion and a computer is not capable of this.
This probably means that for you, poetry can't exist without a human element. Even if it looks like poetry, if it isn't created by a human it isn't poetry.
Delete"The Self" was recognized in nearly all of the poems. They also all deal with either nature and the beauty of it, or how something else is there. I agree with Kelsi on the fact that she said their wasn't much solitude in the poems itself but hinted towards peace and calmness which can lead or is a connotation to solitude.
ReplyDeleteI think watching the videos of "Can a Computer Write Poetry" really surprised me. I didn't think they could actually write a coherent poem that made sense. Even though they did write poems I don't think they were as meaningful as people poems. Like the people said above, computers don't have emotions so it's hard to incorporate them into the poem they write. It was still pretty cool how they put together strings of words like that though to make those poems but sadly they aren't as good as the real deals.
The overall theme that I saw was nature. I think they use nature to describe something specific. I also agree with Kelsi when she said nature is a source of peace and calmness. Most people do use nature to relax so it would make sense to connect these two. I noticed in these poems that they use "Self" a lot. computers writing poetry is boring because there is no feeling to them. I agree with Becca when she said its cool that computers can actually write poems, but they aren't as meaningful as some of the poems that people can write.
ReplyDeleteNature is in almost all of the poems. The poets did a great job of creating a picture or setting a scene with the words they chose. Although the compute was able to write coherent poetry, I didn't like it much at all. I believe this is because when the computer wrote the poems there was no feeling behind the words used. This doesn't allow for a connection between poet and reader. If the reader can't connect to the poem it doesn't make the poem as meaningful to them. This is necessary to me in order to enjoy a poem.
ReplyDeleteI saw an overall theme of nature in almost all the poems. I really like the idea of Kelsey and Mollie on how the nature is a source of peace and calmness. I think nature can be connected to many things such as relaxation and beauty. I think computers can write poetry, but I think it's meaningless because emotions write poetry and computers don't have emotions.
ReplyDeleteI feel like the poems presented in these poems, reflected nature in both a sense of human nature and the process of the natural world around us. I feel like they almost tried to tie together both the naturally balance each other. I believe this almost represents the human spirituality human ability is something that most occur naturally. I think that, in this regard poems written by a computer can not be writers of poetry in that way. I believe they can be tools in an ever expanding writing medium, but need a hand to start the process.
ReplyDeleteI liked how you explained the American Transcendentalist's connection of nature to the spiritual. All three did believe that there was a connection, although they believed it in three different ways.
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