World Poetry Day

Poetry is defined as an art form that uses the meaning, sound and rhythm of language to evoke an emotional response. To celebrate World Poetry Day, we look at the complete works of three of the most influential poets to identify the words that they most frequently use.

Below are portraits of Kipling, Stevenson and Poe derived by using some of the most common words (three or more letters) in their poetry. The size of each word represents its frequency of use. We've taken out words such as 'and', 'but' and 'the'.

Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling was born in India on 30 December 1865 and died on 18 January 1936. He is a renowned English poet and writer.

Using 523 poems by Kipling we have created a wordcloud portait.

His most commonly used words (three or more letters) are shall,man,men,one and old. The most common longer words (7 letters or more) are beneath, England, soldier, thousand and English.

Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Stevenson was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on 13 November 1850 and died on 3 December 1894. As well as being a Scottish poet he also wrote the novel Treasure Island.

Using 303 poems by Stevenson we have created a wordcloud portait. The most common 5 words used (three or more letters) are day, like, still, shall and love. The most common longer words (7 letters or more) are children, morning, flowers, friends and mountain.

Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston on 19 January 1809 and died on 7 October 1849, an American writer and poet.

Using 57 poems by Poe we have created a wordcloud portait.

The most common 5 words used (three or more letters) are thy, upon, bells, night and love. The most common longer words (7 letters or more) are flowers, nothing, thought, chamber and nevermore.

AI Generated Poetry

Google's Verse by Verse experimental AI can be used to generate poems in the style of various different historical poets. The AI uses two models, one that generates poetic lines in the style of the poet and another that attempts to understand which line best follows the previous line.

Below is a poem created in the style of Edgar Allan Poe by the AI. We composed the first line by using words commonly used in Poe's poems. The AI generated subsequent lines.



Thy beauty shall light the night
Filled with deep passion, from the wild air.
Laid her on these crystalline delight,
Leaving her young flowers to its lair.

Enjoy World Poetry Day!