If BARD is a poet, I wouldn't know it

 kw: analysis, artificial intelligence, experimental linguistics, poetry

My first queries to BARD were related to Shakespeare. BARD bungled the iambic meter of a soliloquy. I decided to try poetry in a more general sense. I will comment in each section.

P07: There are 3 kinds of photosynthesis: C3, C4 and CAM. Please write a sonnet about photosynthesis in the Italian rhyming style.

Bard: Sure, here is a sonnet about photosynthesis in the Italian rhyming style:

Photosynthesis

The leaves unfurl, the sun shines bright,
And plants begin their daily flight.
They take in carbon dioxide,
And water from the ground below.
 
They use the energy from the sun,
To turn these things into one.
A sugar called glucose,
And oxygen, which is released into the air.
 
There are three main types of photosynthesis,
C3, C4, and CAM.
Each type has its own advantages and disadvantages,
And they are all used by different plants.
 
C3 photosynthesis is the most common type,
And it is used by most plants.
It is not as efficient as C4 or CAM photosynthesis,
But it is less demanding of water.
 
C4 photosynthesis is more efficient than C3 photosynthesis,
But it requires more water.
It is used by plants that live in hot, dry climates,
Such as cacti and succulents.
 
CAM photosynthesis is the most efficient type of photosynthesis,
But it is also the most demanding of water.
It is used by plants that live in very hot, dry climates,
Such as cacti and succulents.
 
No matter what type of photosynthesis they use,
All plants play an important role in the environment.
They help to clean the air,
And they provide food and oxygen for animals.

A sonnet has 14 lines. Here we have 28. The Italian rhyming style is ABBAABBA CDECDE, although there are various ways the last six lines are handled, including CDCDCD and CDDCDD. None of the quartos above has an ABBA rhyming pattern. Also, sonnets are typically in iambic meter, but none of that is found here.

P07: Please write a limerick about a coder named Larry

Bard: Sure, here is a limerick about a coder named Larry:

There once was a coder named Larry,
Whose code was as tight as a curry.
He could write in any language,
From C++ to Python,
And his programs always ran merrily.

This limerick was in a box, so maybe Bard copied it from somewhere…but it doesn’t rhyme lines 3&4. There were two other drafts:

There once was a coder named Larry,
Whose code was quite hairy and scary.
He said, "I'll rewrite it,
But first I must write it,
Then I'll test it, and then maybe I'll marry."
 
There once was a coder named Larry,
Whose code was quite hairy.
He said, "I'll rewrite it,
So it's not so tight,
And maybe I'll get a raise, maybe."

The first alternate draft is a near-perfect Limerick; just remove "and" from the last line. The other draft, and the original version, are quite klutzy.

P07: Describe the common feet in prodosy: iamb, trochee, anapest, dactyl, and spondee

Bard: Sure. In prosody, a foot is the basic repeating rhythmic unit that forms part of a line of verse. The most common feet in English are the iamb, trochee, anapest, dactyl, and spondee.

Iambic

An iamb is a two-syllable foot with an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. For example, the word "today" is an iamb, with the unstressed syllable "to" followed by the stressed syllable "day."

Trochaic

A trochee is a two-syllable foot with a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable. For example, the word "about" is a trochee, with the stressed syllable "a" followed by the unstressed syllable "bout."

Anapestic

An anapest is a three-syllable foot with two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable. For example, the word "telephone" is an anapest, with the two unstressed syllables "tele" followed by the stressed syllable "phone."

Dactylic

A dactyl is a three-syllable foot with a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables. For example, the word "hammer" is a dactyl, with the stressed syllable "ham" followed by the two unstressed syllables "mer."

Spondaic

A spondee is a two-syllable foot with two stressed syllables. For example, the word "forever" is a spondee, with both syllables "for" and "ever" stressed.

These are just a few of the most common feet in prosody. There are many other types of feet, as well as more complex meters that combine multiple feet.

The descriptions are good but not all the examples are apt. “About” is not a Trochee but an Iamb; a better choice would have been “under”, or the example used for Dactyl, “hammer”. A better choice for a Dactyl would have been “murmuring” or “mockingbird”. “Forever” is not a Spondee but an Amphibrach (rare as a repeated foot in English poetry); a better choice for a spondee would be a “smokestack”, or more common examples of repeated one-syllable words such as “woe, woe!”. In another draft, BARD used these apt examples: “report”, “daily”, “serenade”, “merrily”, and “he who”. A third draft used some four-syllable words as examples!

That's enough. I have read here and there about the poetic abilities of ChatGPT. I suspect they are overhyped. I didn't ask BARD to write free verse, which I don't consider to be verse at all. Maybe that's what folks have written about.