1
00:00:07,039 --> 00:00:11,069
Muhammad Ali spent years training
to become the greatest boxer

2
00:00:11,069 --> 00:00:13,520
the world had ever seen,

3
00:00:13,520 --> 00:00:17,149
but only moments to create
the shortest poem.

4
00:00:17,149 --> 00:00:21,250
Ali captivated Harvard's 
graduating class in 1975

5
00:00:21,250 --> 00:00:24,680
with his message of unity and friendship.

6
00:00:24,680 --> 00:00:27,371
When he finished, 
the audience wanted more.

7
00:00:27,371 --> 00:00:29,060
They wanted a poem.

8
00:00:29,060 --> 00:00:32,962
Ali delivered what is considered
the shortest poem ever.

9
00:00:32,962 --> 00:00:35,661
"Me, we."

10
00:00:35,661 --> 00:00:38,271
Or is it "me, weeee"?

11
00:00:38,271 --> 00:00:39,481
No one's really sure.

12
00:00:39,481 --> 00:00:45,471
Regardless, if these two words are a poem,
then what exactly makes a poem a poem?

13
00:00:45,471 --> 00:00:48,101
Poets themselves have struggled
with this question,

14
00:00:48,101 --> 00:00:51,605
often using metaphors to approximate
a definition.

15
00:00:51,605 --> 00:00:53,680
Is a poem a little machine?

16
00:00:53,680 --> 00:00:54,765
A firework?

17
00:00:54,765 --> 00:00:55,821
An echo?

18
00:00:55,821 --> 00:00:57,010
A dream?

19
00:00:57,010 --> 00:01:01,352
Poetry generally has certain
recognizable characteristics.

20
00:01:01,352 --> 00:01:05,551
One - poems emphasize language's
musical qualities.

21
00:01:05,551 --> 00:01:08,481
This can be achieved through
rhyme, rhythm, and meter,

22
00:01:08,481 --> 00:01:09,979
from the sonnets of Shakepeare,

23
00:01:09,979 --> 00:01:11,542
to the odes of Confucius,

24
00:01:11,542 --> 00:01:13,852
to the Sanskrit Vedas.

25
00:01:13,852 --> 00:01:16,556
Two - poems use condensed language,

26
00:01:16,556 --> 00:01:20,492
like literature with all the water
wrung out of it.

27
00:01:20,492 --> 00:01:23,872
Three - poems often feature
intense feelings,

28
00:01:23,872 --> 00:01:25,875
from Rumi's spiritual poetry

29
00:01:25,875 --> 00:01:29,312
to Pablo Neruda's "Ode to an Onion."

30
00:01:29,312 --> 00:01:33,883
Poetry, like art itself, has a way
of challenging simple definitions.

31
00:01:33,883 --> 00:01:36,303
While the rhythmic patterns 
of the earliest poems

32
00:01:36,303 --> 00:01:40,163
were a way to remember stories
even before the advent of writing,

33
00:01:40,163 --> 00:01:42,703
a poem doesn't need to be lyrical.

34
00:01:42,703 --> 00:01:44,251
Reinhard Döhl's “Apfel”

35
00:01:44,251 --> 00:01:46,649
and Eugen Gomringer's "silencio"

36
00:01:46,649 --> 00:01:50,160
toe the line between visual art
and poetry.

37
00:01:50,160 --> 00:01:53,556
Meanwhile, E.E. Cummings wrote poems
whose shapes were as important

38
00:01:53,556 --> 00:01:55,420
as the words themselves,

39
00:01:55,420 --> 00:02:01,909
in this case amplifying the sad loneliness
of a single leaf falling through space.

40
00:02:01,909 --> 00:02:05,569
If the visual nature of poetry
faded into the background,

41
00:02:05,569 --> 00:02:07,989
perhaps we'd be left with music,

42
00:02:07,989 --> 00:02:10,600
and that's an area that people
love to debate.

43
00:02:10,600 --> 00:02:12,669
Are songs poems?

44
00:02:12,669 --> 00:02:16,189
Many don't regard songwriters as poets
in a literary sense,

45
00:02:16,189 --> 00:02:18,689
but lyrics from artists like Paul Simon,

46
00:02:18,689 --> 00:02:19,788
Bob Dylan,

47
00:02:19,788 --> 00:02:21,159
and Tupac Shakur

48
00:02:21,159 --> 00:02:23,829
often hold up even without the music.

49
00:02:23,829 --> 00:02:27,049
In rap, poet elements like rhyme,
rhythm, and imagery

50
00:02:27,049 --> 00:02:29,529
are inseparable from the form.

51
00:02:29,529 --> 00:02:32,359
Take this lyric from the Notorious B.I.G.

52
00:02:32,359 --> 00:02:34,727
"I can hear sweat trickling 
down your cheek

53
00:02:34,727 --> 00:02:37,019
Your heartbeat sound 
like Sasquatch feet

54
00:02:37,019 --> 00:02:39,801
Thundering, shaking the concrete."

55
00:02:39,801 --> 00:02:43,298
So far, all the examples we've seen
have had line breaks.

56
00:02:43,298 --> 00:02:48,045
We can even imagine the two words
of Ali's poem organizing in the air -

57
00:02:48,045 --> 00:02:50,258
Me, We.

58
00:02:50,258 --> 00:02:53,304
Poetry has a shape 
that we can usually recognize.

59
00:02:53,304 --> 00:02:57,209
Its line breaks help readers navigate
the rhythms of a poem.

60
00:02:57,209 --> 00:02:59,628
But what if those line breaks disappeared?

61
00:02:59,628 --> 00:03:02,118
Would it lose its essence as a poem?

62
00:03:02,118 --> 00:03:03,433
Maybe not.

63
00:03:03,433 --> 00:03:05,237
Enter the prose poem.

64
00:03:05,237 --> 00:03:07,989
Prose poems use vivid images
and wordplay

65
00:03:07,989 --> 00:03:11,271
but are formatted like paragraphs.

66
00:03:11,271 --> 00:03:15,343
When we look at poetry less as a form
and more as a concept,

67
00:03:15,343 --> 00:03:18,149
we can see the poetic all around us:

68
00:03:18,149 --> 00:03:19,378
spiritual hymns,

69
00:03:19,378 --> 00:03:22,249
the speeches of orators like
Martin Luther King, Jr.,

70
00:03:22,249 --> 00:03:23,179
JFK,

71
00:03:23,179 --> 00:03:24,590
and Winston Churchill,

72
00:03:24,590 --> 00:03:27,429
and surprising places like social media.

73
00:03:27,429 --> 00:03:33,140
In 2010, journalist Joanna Smith tweeted
updates from the earthquake in Haiti.

74
00:03:33,140 --> 00:03:36,091
"Was in b-room getting dressed
when heard my name.

75
00:03:36,091 --> 00:03:38,811
Tremor. Ran outside through sliding door.

76
00:03:38,811 --> 00:03:42,531
All still now. Safe. Roosters crowing."

77
00:03:42,531 --> 00:03:46,061
Smith uses language in a way
that is powerful, direct,

78
00:03:46,061 --> 00:03:48,261
and filled with vivid images.

79
00:03:48,273 --> 00:03:50,723
Compare her language to a haiku,

80
00:03:50,723 --> 00:03:55,823
the ancient Japanese poetic form 
that emphasizes bursts of brief intensity

81
00:03:55,823 --> 00:04:00,684
with just three lines of five, 
seven, and five syllables.

82
00:04:00,684 --> 00:04:03,632
The waters of poetry run wide and deep.

83
00:04:03,632 --> 00:04:05,504
Poetry has evolved over time,

84
00:04:05,504 --> 00:04:07,193
and perhaps now more than ever,

85
00:04:07,193 --> 00:04:12,854
the line between poetry, 
prose, song, and visual art has blurred.

86
00:04:12,854 --> 00:04:15,234
However, one thing has not changed.

87
00:04:15,234 --> 00:04:18,664
The word poetry actually began
in verb form,

88
00:04:18,664 --> 00:04:23,604
coming from the ancient Greek poiesis,
which means to create.

89
00:04:23,604 --> 00:04:28,144
Poets, like craftsman, still work with
the raw materials of the world

90
00:04:28,144 --> 00:04:29,992
to forge new understandings

91
00:04:29,992 --> 00:04:36,075
and comment on what it is to be human
in a way only humans can.

92
00:04:36,075 --> 00:04:41,525
Dartmouth researchers tested this idea
by asking robots to pen poetry.

93
00:04:41,525 --> 00:04:45,024
A panel of judges sorted 
through stacks of sonnets

94
00:04:45,024 --> 00:04:49,054
to see if they could distinguish those
made by man and machine.

95
00:04:49,054 --> 00:04:53,012
You may be happy to know that while
scientists have successfully

96
00:04:53,012 --> 00:04:56,035
used artificial intelligence 
in manufacturing,

97
00:04:56,035 --> 00:04:57,035
medicine,

98
00:04:57,035 --> 00:04:58,575
and even journalism,

99
00:04:58,575 --> 00:05:01,255
poetry is a different story.

100
00:05:01,255 --> 00:05:04,805
The robots were caught red-handed
100% of the time.