The study found that the successful poems had fewer syllables per word in their first lines and were more likely to have an initial line consisting of monosyllables

“Furthermore, the amateur poets were more likely to use more emotional words, both negative and positive.”

sciencebarrowY’all relax OK Australia finally figured out contemporary American poetry y’all. Post your scores, losers. > 0.5 is professional and < 0.5 is amateur. Be sure to read the, um, “methodology.” According to poetry journalist Patrick Gaughan, the highest so far (at 4.2) is WCW’s good old wheelbarrow coloring book, and noted anti-poetry skeptic/fiction engineer Jonathan Volk reports that “an untitled Jewel poem just got a 1.17.” Stay tuned for breaking developments. (Discovery credit goes to poetry scientist Anne Cecelia Holmes.)

Craft Notes / 47 Comments
June 5th, 2013 / 2:20 pm