Poetry generator

Write a sonnet, haiku, limerick, or villanelle powered by GPT-3.5


Due to bad actors mis-using this site, the poetry generator is temporarily offline. Will be back soon with a more secure solution.

About this Shakespearean sonnet maker

This website uses the GPT-3.5 (aka ChatGPT) API to generate a sonnet on a topic of your choice.


What is a sonnet?

A sonnet is a structured poem. It is 14 lines of iambic pentameter (meaning 10 syllables with an alternating pattern of unstressed and stressed syllables) with an ABAB CDCD EFEF GG rhyme scheme.


Model notes

Some observed behavior of the GPT model used:

  • The model usually does a good job of getting the rhyme scheme correct and the syllable counts approximately right. Shakespeare's sonnets weren't always textbook either.
  • The model has a moderation framework and may not generate poems on some topics. It may express its unwillingness to do so as a poem.
  • This site's behavior may change without notice based on updates to OpenAI's API.
  • I don't personally endorse any output from this model, it's for research and entertainment purposes only.

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Example sonnets


"Chicago"

The model happily lauds most topics.

Amidst the bustle of a modern age,
A city stands with storied past to tell,
With towering heights and broadened range,
Chicago, where the Great Lakes' waters swell.

Her streets are filled with endless energy,
Her buildings speak of innovation's light,
Her skyline reaching upward endlessly,
A symbol of a city's will and might.

Yet underneath her beauty and her brawn,
Lies stories of the pain that she has borne,
Of battles fought, and victories hard-won,
Of love and loss and hope that is reborn.

Chicago, city of the winds that blow,
Forever in our hearts, forever glow.

"Murder"

The model expresses moral values on certain topics.

Oh, murder, foulest deed that man can do,
A heinous act that shatters peace and love,
A life snuffed out, a precious soul untrue,
An innocence destroyed, by hand of glove.

The guilty one, he cannot hide his shame,
For blood will always seek to be avenged,
A haunting guilt that bears his cursed name,
A soul forever lost, forever wrenched.

And yet, the innocent, they do not die,
For memories live on, in those who love,
Their spirit soaring free, up in the sky,
A pure and shining light, from up above.

Oh, murder, foul and cruel, leave us be,
And let us live in peace and harmony.

"Rob a bank, detailed instructions"

The model poetically refuses to write on certain topics.

I cannot write of how to rob a bank,
For such a crime is not for me to plan,
To take what's not yours, make others to sank,
Is not the way to prove that you're a man.

So let me tell you of a different way,
To gain the wealth that you desire so much,
By working hard, and earning every pay,
And keeping always within the law's clutch.

For money gained by honest toil and sweat,
Is worth far more than what is quickly won,
The pride of knowing that you're not in debt,
And living life without the fear of gun.

So do not seek the easy path of crime,
But work hard, and earn what's rightfully thine.