Ode to a Keatsian Turn: Creating Meaningful and Poetic Instances of Rhetorical Forms - Computational Creativity Research: Towards Creative Machines - page 190

Chapter 10
Ode to a Keatsian Turn: Creating
Meaningful and Poetic Instances
of Rhetorical Forms

Tony Veale

Abstract Linguistic creativity requires a marriage of form and content in which
each works together to convey our meanings with concision, resonance and wit.
Though form clearly influences and shapes our content, the most deft formal trickery
cannot compensate for a lack of real insight. Before computers can be truly creative
with language, we must first imbue them with the ability to formulate meanings
that are worthy of creative expression. This is especially true of computer-generated
poetry. If readers are to recognize a poetic turn-of-phrase as more than a superficial
manipulation of words, they must perceive and connect with the meanings and the
intent behind the words. So it is not enough for a computer to merely generate poem-
shaped texts ; poems must be driven by conceits that build an affective worldview.
This chapter describes a conceit-driven approach to computational poetry, in which
metaphorical conceits are generated for a given topic and affective slant. Subtle
inferences drawn from these conceits can then drive the process of poetry generation.
In the same vein, we consider the problem of generating witty insights from the banal
truisms of common-sense knowledge bases.

10.1 Introduction

Raymond Chandler saw the primary task of the “natural” writer as bridge-building,
between “ what one wants to say ” and “ what one knows how to say ”[ 5 ]. The scholarly
study of how best to bridge one's words and ideas is an ancient one [ 1 ], and rhetori-
cians have systematically identified and classified a wide variety of linguistic forms
with which to give our meanings a persuasive force [ 13 ]. These rhetorical devices
are so effective in the shaping and delivery of well-developed meanings that they can
also lend our less substantial thoughts the unmerited appearance of solidity. This is
not always a bad thing: a well-chosen rhetorical form can act as a scaffolding for an
undeveloped idea, allowing it to take root and grow during subsequent elaboration.