Visiting the Poetic Mountaintop of AI (IV)

Campus Ode to Tomorrow

On the Wednesday of that spring break week, there wasn’t much schoolwork, and I had submitted recommendation letters for my students to all three universities. That day, I happened to find an applied math colloquium (titled “Are the Equations for Magnetohydrodynamics Valid for Highly Energetic Particles in Very Tortuous Magnetic Fields? Two Integrable Paradigms Arising from Toroidal Fields with Short Radii of Curvature) at the UCLA Math Department, so I decided to go and take a look. My decision wasn’t really driven by a passion for applied math or mathematical physics, but rather because it was a rare opportunity to attend some weekday activities at UCLA during my free time. UCLA and my university, USC, are perhaps the two most famous universities in Los Angeles, but I had never visited the UCLA campus before despite living in LA for almost two years.

The colloquium would start at 4 pm, so I set off from my USC apartment at about 3 and headed directly to the Mathematical Sciences Building (MS) where the UCLA math department is located. As the car entered the campus, honestly, I wasn’t all that surprised by the university scenes. There was nothing that would dazzle my eyes, like colorful flying cars or a backward-flowing waterfall (or any waterfall), just pretty standard university halls and roads. I’m not implying that the campus wasn’t well-organized, but having grown up around universities my entire life, I had become quite accustomed to these academic atmospheres and scenes so there was nothing particularly fresh about it. Except for being larger, the UCLA campus wasn’t much different from the USC campus. But anyway, it was an ideal place for me to seek some poetic inspiration.

Before the colloquium started, I briefly explored the interior of the MS building, where I found many classrooms and offices, quite similar to the KAP hall at USC. There was also a math center on the second floor of the MS building, but the space referred to as the “center” wasn’t particularly distinctive compared to the nearby rooms since it was just located in a larger office room with a few long tables. I still preferred the physical layout of the USC math center because it was designed more like a restaurant or hotel lobby, offering the center a unique and open-minded atmosphere for exchanging ideas and discussing math questions. Indeed, the KAP hall was relatively new compared to the UCLA MS building, so it wasn’t surprising that the MS building felt less modern and had a more historical ambiance.

I then went to the colloquium classroom. There were only a handful of people there, no more than 10. That semester I happened to be taking a USC course called Math 500: Graduate Colloquium, which required students to attend at least one colloquium each week. So, I had already attended a few colloquia at USC before that, and those gatherings usually attracted many more attendees than this particular UCLA colloquium. I suspect it might be because UCLA didn’t offer a similar course encouraging students to attend these colloquia?

During the break, in that classroom, I started writing these lines in my notebook:

When new leaves begin to emerge,
A tall palace smiling welcoming merry birds.
Sky is embracing spring’s trace,
Opening up a new world with open arms.

As everybody cares for us with love,
The only barrier is our own hearts and fear.
Even when the beacon of the shore is lost in yesterday,
A beacon of hope in our hearts shall return.

From here to the ferry land coming from a dream,
Familiar clouds falling to console every person on earth.

(Note: “ferry land” in the last stanza was a typo and should be “fairyland”. I’ll explain why I kept it here later in this article.)

Then, after the colloquium ended, I went outside and took a further tour of the campus while taking photos. Although I’m not a professional photographer, I certainly enjoy the idea of becoming an amateur photographer someday, at least for a certain period of my life, traveling and taking some interesting photos. I visited many fascinating places like the UCLA bookstore (where I bought the hat I was wearing in the last scene of the following AI-voice video), “U See LA Optometry”, the Royce Hall (a grand building that can most represent “a towering palace” in my first line of the poem), Powell Library, and the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. Meanwhile, I modified some of the previous lines and completed the following lines:

From here to the ferry land coming from a dream,
Familiar clouds falling to console every person on earth.
Melting the last piece of ice on the promised land,
Watching tasteful flowers bloom in a peaceful world.

The campus was really expansive. By the time the sun almost set, I still hadn’t toured the entire place. At around 7 pm, as the sun was setting, I was on my way to an inconspicuous tunnel under Charles E Young Dr E. Why was I going there if it was inconspicuous? Well, it’s simply because it was the filming location of one of my favorite movies called Happy Death Day (2017). It’s a horror-comedy film, as you might guess from its name. In the movie, the protagonist Tree Gelbman is lured into this creepy and isolated tunnel during the night, where she encounters a music box in the shape of the university’s mascot (a baby) playing a chilling rendition of “Happy Birthday.” While inspecting the music box, Tree is suddenly attacked and murdered by a villain wearing a mask that is also the baby mascot of her university. The university in that film is called Bayfield University which unfortunately doesn’t exist in our reality (otherwise, it would surely have become quite famous), but the creepy tunnel is actually at UCLA. That scene really fascinated me, so, I made a special visit to that legendary place and took some photos and recordings in that tunnel. At UCLA, of course, that tunnel was not as creepy as in the movie, and there was no music box on the road. (And, fortunately, there was no murderer either.) But during the 30 minutes or so when I took photos around that tunnel, literally no one passed by or even got near. So, even in reality, it was a somewhat desolate location. And it was perfectly suited for shooting movies (especially horror movies).

After leaving the tunnel, I found a tranquil spot on a bench to finish my poem. At that moment, a gust of wind blew, and leaves overhead rustled, inspiring me to write the following stanza:

I like the wind so open minded and free,
Goon anywhere without constant fear.
I like how everything on Earth is winds companion,
With the land’s embrace, he will never feel forlorn.

By this time, it was completely dark, the moon bathing everything in quiet repose. The sun had set, leaving stars to take over the sky. In this setting, I continued writing:

As the stars take over the firmament,
Everything seems to have ceased to be.
Hope soaring to the home with a brace of nostalgia,
The only destination for us is a dreamy tomorrow.

At this point, an entire poem draft had been completed:

When new leaves begin to emerge,
A tall palace smiling welcoming merry birds.
Sky is embracing spring’s trace,
Opening up a new world with open arms.

As everybody cares for us with love,
The only barrier is our own hearts and fear.
Even when the beacon of the shore is lost in yesterday.
A beacon of hope in our hearts shall return.

From here to the ferry land coming from a dream,
Familiar clouds falling to console every person on earth.
Melting the last piece of ice on the promised land,
Watching tasteful flowers bloom in a peaceful world.

I like the wind so open minded and free,
Goon anywhere without constant fear.
I like how everything on Earth is winds companion,
With the land’s embrace, he will never feel forlorn.

As the stars take over the firmament,
Everything seems to have ceased to be.
Hope soaring to the home with a brace of nostalgia,
The only destination for us is a dreamy tomorrow.

Beautiful! Now, as before, it was time to perfect it further with AI. I first asked ChatGPT-4 to rewrite it in rhyme:

As new leaves appear and burgeon with grace,
A towering palace, home to birds, finds its place.
The sky wraps around spring’s soft embrace,
Revealing a world of wonder, a wondrous space.

With love we’re all nurtured and cared for, it’s true,
But the barriers we face lie within me and you.
Though the beacon of shore may be lost to the past,
In our hearts hope shall flourish, forever to last.

To a land of enchantment, we travel from dreams,
As familiar clouds fall, consoling Earth’s schemes.
The last icy shard on this land melts away,
Blooms of vibrant flowers on this peaceful display.

I love the wind’s freedom, unburdened and wide,
No fear holds it back, as it roams far and wide.
A companion to all, the wind travels on,
In Earth’s warm embrace, never feeling withdrawn.

As stars claim the night, the sky’s glittering host,
The world seems to pause, in a silent repose.
With hope soaring homeward, embraced by the past,
Our dreams of tomorrow, forever shall last.

That’s when I noticed a trend or pattern in AI-generated or AI-modified poems: they all follow the AABB rhyme pattern by default. Since I had created three poems in the AABB pattern as described in the previous three articles, I decided to switch to what I think is the more resonant AABA pattern for a change. However, sometimes GPT would make incredibly unexpected errors that humans would find hard to make: when I tried asking it to write this poem in a different rhyme pattern, it never worked well. For example, I immediately asked GPT(3.5) to rewrite the poem in an AABA rhyme pattern, attaching my original poem. Here is its result:

When spring’s new leaves begin to grow,
A palace tall with fragrant glow,
The sky, it welcomes with embrace,
A new world opens, full of grace.

With love, they care for us each day,
But our own fears can block our way,
Though yesterday’s beacon seems lost,
A hope-filled heart can pay the cost.

To the land of dreams, we journey far,
Clouds console us where we are,
Melting ice on promised land,
Peaceful blooms, beauty at hand.

The wind is free, and open-minded,
No constant fear, it’s unconfined,
Companion to all things on earth,
Embraced by lands of endless worth.

As stars light up the firmament,
It seems that all has been spent,
But hope still soars with nostalgia’s brace,
Towards tomorrow’s dreamy place.

Anyone could tell this was still AABB. I even asked GPT “What’s the rhyme scheme”, and it replied “The rhyme scheme of the poem is AABA.” Ah! It seemed this AI couldn’t really sense the difference. Alright. I told it, “No, it’s AABB”, and it was cordial and said “I apologize for the mistake. You are correct, the rhyme scheme of the poem is AABB.” So I instructed it to “Change it to AABA”, here’s its reply:

Sure, here is the rewritten poem with an AABA rhyme scheme:

As new leaves grow on trees so high,
A palace stands beneath the sky,
Spring’s embrace is warm and true,
Welcoming all to start anew.

Love surrounds us every day,
Yet fear and doubt can lead astray,
The beacon of hope may seem far,
But in our hearts, it’s never too far.

Towards a dreamland, we set sail,
Clouds and sky, they never fail,
Melting ice, the land awakes,
Blooming flowers, dreams it makes.

The wind is free and wild and kind,
No fear or limit it can find,
Companion to all on this earth,
Finding beauty in every birth.

Stars light up the endless night,
Hope still shines with all its might,
Nostalgia leads us to our goal,
A dreamy tomorrow, to make us whole.

Come on! Nothing changed! And are you kidding me with lines like “The beacon of hope may seem far, But in our hearts, it’s never too far.”? You can do better than that! So far, I’d been using ChatGPT’s default model (GPT 3.5). I wondered if maybe GPT-4 would understand rhyme patterns better? So, I switched to GPT-4, attaching my original poem while giving it detailed instructions: “Rewrite the poem in the rhyme scheme of ABAB: the first line and the third lines should rhyme, and the second and fourth lines should rhyme.” Unfortunately, GPT-4 wasn’t much better. It replied:

When new leaves emerge with grace,
A lofty palace, birds embrace,
The sky now wears a springtime face,
And opens wide its tender arms.

For all who care with love’s soft charms,
The heart and fear, our sole alarms,
Though yesterday obscured the shore,
In hearts shall hope return once more.

From dreamy lands to ferry near,
Familiar clouds descend to cheer,
On promised lands the ice is gone,
As flowers bloom, a world reborn.

I love the wind, so free and bold,
Unfettered, fearing no stronghold,
For all on earth, its friends abound,
In land’s embrace, no more forlorn.

As stars claim night’s vast firmament,
It seems as though all life’s relent,
Hope soars toward home, nostalgia’s trace,
To find a dreamy morrow’s place.

It was very frustrating. Even the most advanced GPT model couldn’t comprehend one of the simplest requests for AI to give an ABAB rhyme pattern revision of my input. What’s worse, I didn’t even think the revision was better than my original poem in terms of literary taste. Therefore, I again used the method of inputting my own poems mentioned in “Visiting the Poetic Mountaintop of AI (III)” to enhance the revision’s taste. Indeed, I used the same Chat window as the one where I revised “Timeless Tides”. And AI gave me the following revision based on my style, analyzed by my poetry input and my original UCLA poem:

As new leaves unfurl and grow,
A towering palace greets birds in tow.
The sky embraces spring’s sweet grace,
Welcoming a world with a warm embrace.

Love surrounds, and fears abate,
Our hearts and minds can liberate.
Though yesterday’s shore beacons fade,
Hope’s beacon in our hearts is made.

From dreamy realms to lands we ferry,
Clouds descend, the weary to carry.
Melting ice from the promised shore,
Blooming flowers in peace, forevermore.

I cherish the wind, so boundless and free,
Roaming the earth, without dread or decree.
A companion to all, the wind does enthrall,
Embraced by the land, it never feels small.

As stars claim the night, and all comes to rest,
In quiet repose, we hope for the best.
Nostalgia’s wings carry dreams far and near,
Our destination, a tomorrow to revere.

What a relief! It’s much better this time, right? It seems like AI hasn’t lost its edge in giving good replies. But still, the same problem. I wanted it to be in an AABA rhyme scheme. I knew it might not work, but I tried again asking GPT-4 to rewrite it in ABAB. As you can imagine, it replied:

New leaves emerge and start to show,
Spring’s sweet grace the sky does know.
A palace grand where birds convene,
With warm embrace, the world is seen.

Surrounded by love, our fears release,
In liberated hearts and minds we find peace.
Though distant beacons of yore may wane,
Within our hearts, hope’s light remains.

We travel from realms of dreams to lands,
Carrying the weary, the clouds lend their hands.
The ice melts away from a shore so dear,
In everlasting peace, flowers bloom each year.

The wind I adore, boundless and wild,
Across the earth, it roams like a child.
To all a friend, its charm we share,
In lands embrace, it never feels rare.

As nighttime falls and stars take their place,
We lie in repose, seeking solace and grace.
Dreams borne on wings of sweet yesteryear,
Lead us to a future we’ll hold most dear.

Of course, it was still not ABAB. It’d be weird if it could suddenly understand rhyme patterns. It’s hard to imagine that the world’s most advanced language model, capable of completing complex poem generation and revision tasks in a second, couldn’t even understand the simpler rhyme requests. I was a bit annoyed and frustrated. So I told it, “Your answers suck. Forget about it. I can revise it myself!” Then, I started to build upon the penultimate version (the one obtained based on my style) of the poem revision and rewrote it in the AABA rhyme pattern by myself.

Basically, I kept the first three lines (AAB) of all the stanzas the same, and all I needed to do was rewrite the last line of each stanza to rhyme with the first two lines. It’s a fairly easy job. Then, I asked GPT to suggest a title; since it doesn’t need to use rhyme, it should be okay. So, here’s my final work:

Campus’s Ode to Tomorrow

As new leaves unfurl and grow,
A towering palace greets birds in tow.
The sky enfolds spring’s gentle trace,
Welcoming a world with a tender glow.

Love surrounds, and fears abate,
Our hearts and minds can liberate.
Though yesterday’s shore beacons recede,
Hope’s beacon in our hearts won’t be swayed.

From dreamy realms to lands we ferry,
Clouds descend, the weary to carry.
Melting ice from the promised shore,
Blooming flowers in peace, a scene so merry.

I cherish the wind, so boundless and free,
Roaming the earth, without dread or decree.
A companion to all, the wind does enthrall,
Embraced by the land, it dances with glee.

As stars claim the night, and all come to rest,
In quiet repose, we hope for the best.
Nostalgic wings carry dreams far and near,
Our destination, a tomorrow to quest.

Ivan Zhanhu Feng
3/15/2023
At UCLA Campus

Great! Finally, this poem in the AABA rhyme pattern was finished! Although this poem changed significantly after the revisions from AI and me, it essentially preserved most of my original imagery. I noticed something unusual in the poem. It said, “From dreamy realms to lands we ferry,” where did “ferry” come from? I didn’t remember writing anything similar. Then I understood; in my first draft, I had wanted to write, “From here to the fairyland coming from a dream,” but I made a homophone typo and wrote “the ferry land”. Regardless, the revised version “From dreamy realms to lands we ferry,” sounded even better as it added a more lively and dynamic feeling. I especially liked the following line “the weary to carry” which echoed and rhymed perfectly with “we ferry”. So, no need to change it.

I eagerly copied the work to Play.ht to clone my voice and make a video using my UCLA recordings. A bit surprisingly, this cloned voice read the poem incredibly well. In the past, as you can see from the corresponding videos, the cloned voice captured my timbre well, but it usually lacked accurate emotions. This is understandable as I believe the voice cloning system doesn’t really comprehend the meaning of the words it’s reading. It simply reads whatever I type in. But this time, when my cloned voice read “campus ode”, I could feel the joy, confidence, and optimism I had instilled into the verses. It was a genuine Spring Break miracle! In fact, to this day, as I write this article, that “Campus’s Ode to Tomorrow” reading is still the best voice Play.ht has ever generated using my cloned voice. The May “A Mother’s Day Sonnet for Mom” poem cloned voice was close, but not quite as wonderful as this UCLA one. Moreover, I’d typically create several cloned voice versions and then pick the best from all its generations at Play.ht, since the first few versions were usually not satisfactory. But this time, I didn’t even attempt to generate a second version since the first was so perfect that I decided to use it right away. Here is the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJWt1FDLM6g&list=PL5Ir6_ZFOgX9jjBgP8NIBjmXShav_TC8S&index=12

As an aside, just a couple of days ago, I remade this video, replacing the cloned voice with my actual voice mimicking the cloned one, and then generated a new video. To replicate the cloned voice, I deliberately raised the pitch of my voice and followed all the specific pauses and intonations from that poetry recitation, etc. Here’s the remastered video: https://youtu.be/oE1d7tURDGM

Also, it’s worth noting that the high-pitched nature of my cloned voice isn’t a problem with “play.ht”, but rather, it’s because the original voice I uploaded is a compilation of my recordings from early 2020 to mid-2021, reading ancient English poems (mainly by Shakespeare, Lord Byron, and John Donne). During that period, I enjoyed reading poems using a heightened, aria-like tone, hoping to lend my voice a certain allure. However, I later discovered that my most natural voice sounds more attractive and emotionally authentic, so I no longer prefer to read in that theatrical style.

Alright, fantastic! I’m very pleased with my work and video, made possible by cutting-edge AI technologies. It’s grown quite late now. So, I suppose it’s time to head back to my place at USC. Walking through a night at UCLA with a resonant poem, I found myself reminiscing about the serene twilight in Santa Monica, my long-past college years, and even the carefree days at the university I spent my childhood in. Stars are twinkling from the vast unknown, yet they offer me strands of certainty, accompanied by a hint of hope and confidence, lighting the way to tomorrow. The verses of the poem echo in the silent void:

As stars claim the night, and all come to rest,
In quiet repose, we hope for the best.
Nostalgic wings carry dreams far and near,
Our destination, a tomorrow to quest.

Ivan Zhanhu Feng
July 31~Aug 4, 2023
At KAP Hall Office, USC

Las update: Aug 5, 2023