Virtual Muse: Experiments in Computer Poetry (Wesleyan Poetry Series)

Product Description Introduces the basics of programming computers to produce poetry and examines several programs the author and his colleagues have developed 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 From the Publisher 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 trim. 3 figs. LC 96-16074 About the Author Charles O. Hartman is Professor of English and Poet in Residence at Connecticut College, author of The Long View (Wesleyan Poetry, 1999), Glass Enclosure (Wesleyan Poetry, 1995) and Jazz Text (1991), and coauthor of Sentences (1995).