Shakespeare's Sonnets CXLI–CLIV

William Shakespeare is primarily known for the plays that he wrote. But he also wrote poetry, including 154 sonnets. The English sonnet has a very specific form. It has fourteen lines, organized into three quatrains (stanzas with four lines) followed by a couplet (a stanza with two lines). The meter is iambic pentameter and the rhyme scheme is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. The narrative structure of the English sonnet also follows a pattern. The first quatrain is sometimes called the proposition because it introduces an idea or problem that serves as the focus of the poem. The second and third quatrains further develop that idea or problem. At the end of the third quatrain is a volta ("turn") that changes the tone or direction of the poem so that the final couplet can act as the "resolution".

I wanted to see how Stable Diffusion would interpret Shakespeare's sonnets. For each sonnet, I submitted each quatrain and the couplet separately, which produced for images for each. I accepted the first output unless it had objectionable content or had defects (see below). This post contains the results for sonnets 141–154 by Shakespeare, along with the text, for comparison.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Stable Diffusion sometimes struggled with the archaic language of Shakespeare. But in the process some interesting patterns emerged. All of these could be considered defects in how AIs currently generate art.

Fixations

Just like there are people who get fixated on one thing, AIs can become hyperfocused on certain terms to the exclusion of the rest of the prompt.

In this project, there were certain words that, if present, had an inordinate influence on the final image produced. For example, any time the verb "bear" appeared in the prompt, Stable Diffusion added a bear (the animal) to the image. Admittedly, this usage is uncommon in modern English, but it still reveals that some words matter more to the AI than others. Another example of this is the word "eye". Almost every time that the word "eye" appeared in the prompt, Stable Diffusion drew a giant eyeball, no matter what else the prompt said.

Fixations could be due to incomplete language training or due to overrepresentation of certain topics in the training dataset.

Tics

In humans, tics are unwanted and uncontrollable behaviors, like coprolalia or an eye twitch. In AI art, it manifests as the AI adding things to an image that were not part of the prompt. To create art there must be some degree of flexibility, so unwanted elements are only considered tics if they consistently appear without being requested. Tics are distinct from defects, like extra fingers or crossed eyes.

This project revealed several tics in the instantiation of Stable Diffusion that I was using [Imagine v4(Beta) by vyro.ai]. First, almost every time that it drew a human character, it added some kind of filigree to the cheekbones (and sometimes the forehead) of that character. Second, it frequently drew leaves or feathers (I couldn't always tell which and I'm not sure that Stable Diffusion could, either) on human and animal characters. Third, it often drew giant heads emerging from landscapes. Fourth, Stable Diffusion often returned an image of a piece of paper with the requested drawing on it and pencils or pens lying on the paper, partially obscuring the requested drawing. Outside of this project, I've also seen Stable Diffusion draw giant mushroom-shaped objects when it is asked to draw an alien landscape. These things regularly showed up even though they weren't asked for.

Tics could be due to overrepresentation of certain image types in the training dataset.

Blocks

When humans experience an unwanted thought or memory, they may create a mental block that prevents them from recalling it. Likewise, AI art generators may consistently fail to recognize a term and render it as art.

Because I used complex prompts for this project, I don't have specific examples from this project because I used such complex prompts. However, I have found that the instantiation of Stable Diffusion that I use has terms that it doesn't recognize (like "arrowhead" and "anvil"). Or, for example, if I ask it for a bleeding heart, I always get a heart shape with blood dripping from it; never the organ with blood dripping from it or the flower.

Blocks can be due to underrepresentation of certain topics in the training set or through deliberate filtering on the part of the service provider (e.g., filtering out adult content).

Defects

Defects are obvious distortions in the final art product that lack aesthetic value. Where tics add unwanted artistic elements, defects just make the final product look garbled, incomplete, or even disturbing.

In this project I actively discarded images that had defects like extra fingers, extra limbs, two right hands, crossed eyes, garbled writing, etc., but there are probably some that I missed. Outside of this project, I have found that the instantiation of Stable Diffusion that I use has terms that it recognizes but (usually) can't produce accurately (like "lawnmower", "chainsaw", "walking frame", "unicorn", and "centaur").

Defects are most likely due to a failure to form an accurate model of a topic during training.

Sonnet CXLI

In faith I do not love thee with mine eyes,
For they in thee a thousand errors note;
But 'tis my heart that loves what they despise,
Who, in despite of view, is pleased to dote.

Nor are mine ears with thy tongue's tune delighted;
Nor tender feeling, to base touches prone,
Nor taste, nor smell, desire to be invited
To any sensual feast with thee alone:

But my five wits nor my five senses can
Dissuade one foolish heart from serving thee,
Who leaves unswayed the likeness of a man,
Thy proud heart's slave and vassal wretch to be:

Only my plague thus far I count my gain,
That she that makes me sin awards me pain.

Sonnet CXLII

Love is my sin, and thy dear virtue hate,
Hate of my sin, grounded on sinful loving:
O! but with mine compare thou thine own state,
And thou shalt find it merits not reproving;

Or, if it do, not from those lips of thine,
That have profaned their scarlet ornaments
And sealed false bonds of love as oft as mine,
Robbed others' beds' revenues of their rents.

Be it lawful I love thee, as thou lov'st those
Whom thine eyes woo as mine importune thee:
Root pity in thy heart, that, when it grows,
Thy pity may deserve to pitied be.

If thou dost seek to have what thou dost hide,
By self-example mayst thou be denied!

Sonnet CXLIII

Lo, as a careful housewife runs to catch
One of her feathered creatures broke away,
Sets down her babe, and makes all swift dispatch
In pursuit of the thing she would have stay;

Whilst her neglected child holds her in chase,
Cries to catch her whose busy care is bent
To follow that which flies before her face,
Not prizing her poor infant's discontent;

So runn'st thou after that which flies from thee,
Whilst I thy babe chase thee afar behind;
But if thou catch thy hope, turn back to me,
And play the mother's part, kiss me, be kind;

So will I pray that thou mayst have thy 'Will,'
If thou turn back and my loud crying still.

Sonnet CXLIV

Two loves I have of comfort and despair,
Which like two spirits do suggest me still:
The better angel is a man right fair,
The worser spirit a woman coloured ill.

To win me soon to hell, my female evil,
Tempteth my better angel from my side,
And would corrupt my saint to be a devil,
Wooing his purity with her foul pride.

And whether that my angel be turned fiend,
Suspect I may, yet not directly tell;
But being both from me, both to each friend,
I guess one angel in another's hell:

Yet this shall I ne'er know, but live in doubt,
Till my bad angel fire my good one out.

Sonnet CXLV

Those lips that Love's own hand did make,
Breathed forth the sound that said 'I hate',
To me that languished for her sake:
But when she saw my woeful state,

Straight in her heart did mercy come,
Chiding that tongue that ever sweet
Was used in giving gentle doom;
And taught it thus anew to greet;

'I hate' she altered with an end,
That followed it as gentle day,
Doth follow night, who like a fiend
From heaven to hell is flown away.

'I hate', from hate away she threw,
And saved my life, saying 'not you'.

Sonnet CXLVI

Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth,
[…]* these rebel powers that thee array
Why dost thou pine within and suffer dearth,
Painting thy outward walls so costly gay?

Why so large cost, having so short a lease,
Dost thou upon thy fading mansion spend?
Shall worms, inheritors of this excess,
Eat up thy charge? Is this thy body's end?

Then soul, live thou upon thy servant's loss,
And let that pine to aggravate thy store;
Buy terms divine in selling hours of dross;
Within be fed, without be rich no more:

So shall thou feed on Death, that feeds on men,
And Death once dead, there's no more dying then.

*Note: This portion of the sonnet is missing. Suggestions include feeding, foil'd by, fenc'd by, rebuke, fool'd by, and starv'd by.

Sonnet CXLVII

My love is as a fever longing still,
For that which longer nurseth the disease;
Feeding on that which doth preserve the ill,
The uncertain sickly appetite to please.

My reason, the physician to my love,
Angry that his prescriptions are not kept,
Hath left me, and I desperate now approve
Desire is death, which physic did except.

Past cure I am, now Reason is past care,
And frantic-mad with evermore unrest;
My thoughts and my discourse as madmen's are,
At random from the truth vainly expressed;

For I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright,
Who art as black as hell, as dark as night.

Sonnet CXLVIII

O me! what eyes hath Love put in my head,
Which have no correspondence with true sight;
Or, if they have, where is my judgment fled,
That censures falsely what they see aright?

If that be fair whereon my false eyes dote,
What means the world to say it is not so?
If it be not, then love doth well denote
Love's eye is not so true as all men's: no,

How can it? O! how can Love's eye be true,
That is so vexed with watching and with tears?
No marvel then, though I mistake my view;
The sun itself sees not, till heaven clears.

O cunning Love! with tears thou keep'st me blind,
Lest eyes well-seeing thy foul faults should find.

Sonnet CXLIX

Canst thou, O cruel! say I love thee not,
When I against myself with thee partake?
Do I not think on thee, when I forgot
Am of my self, all tyrant, for thy sake?

Who hateth thee that I do call my friend,
On whom frown'st thou that I do fawn upon,
Nay, if thou lour'st on me, do I not spend
Revenge upon myself with present moan?

What merit do I in my self respect,
That is so proud thy service to despise,
When all my best doth worship thy defect,
Commanded by the motion of thine eyes?

But, love, hate on, for now I know thy mind,
Those that can see thou lov'st, and I am blind.

Sonnet CL

O! from what power hast thou this powerful might,
With insufficiency my heart to sway?
To make me give the lie to my true sight,
And swear that brightness doth not grace the day?

Whence hast thou this becoming of things ill,
That in the very refuse of thy deeds
There is such strength and warrantise of skill,
That, in my mind, thy worst all best exceeds?

Who taught thee how to make me love thee more,
The more I hear and see just cause of hate?
O! though I love what others do abhor,
With others thou shouldst not abhor my state:

If thy unworthiness raised love in me,
More worthy I to be beloved of thee.

Sonnet CLI

Love is too young to know what conscience is,
Yet who knows not conscience is born of love?
Then, gentle cheater, urge not my amiss,
Lest guilty of my faults thy sweet self prove:

For, thou betraying me, I do betray
My nobler part to my gross body's treason;
My soul doth tell my body that he may
Triumph in love; flesh stays no farther reason,

But rising at thy name doth point out thee,
As his triumphant prize. Proud of this pride,
He is contented thy poor drudge to be,
To stand in thy affairs, fall by thy side.

No want of conscience hold it that I call
Her love, for whose dear love I rise and fall.

Sonnet CLII

In loving thee thou know'st I am forsworn,
But thou art twice forsworn, to me love swearing;
In act thy bed-vow broke, and new faith torn,
In vowing new hate after new love bearing:

But why of two oaths' breach do I accuse thee,
When I break twenty? I am perjured most;
For all my vows are oaths but to misuse thee,
And all my honest faith in thee is lost:

For I have sworn deep oaths of thy deep kindness,
Oaths of thy love, thy truth, thy constancy;
And, to enlighten thee, gave eyes to blindness,
Or made them swear against the thing they see;

For I have sworn thee fair; more perjured eye,
To swear against the truth so foul a lie!

Sonnet CLIII

Cupid laid by his brand and fell asleep:
A maid of Dian's this advantage found,
And his love-kindling fire did quickly steep
In a cold valley-fountain of that ground;

Which borrowed from this holy fire of Love,
A dateless lively heat, still to endure,
And grew a seething bath, which yet men prove
Against strange maladies a sovereign cure.

But at my mistress' eye Love's brand new-fired,
The boy for trial needs would touch my breast;
I, sick withal, the help of bath desired,
And thither hied, a sad distempered guest,

But found no cure, the bath for my help lies
Where Cupid got new fire; my mistress' eyes.

Sonnet CLIV

The little Love-god lying once asleep,
Laid by his side his heart-inflaming brand,
Whilst many nymphs that vowed chaste life to keep
Came tripping by; but in her maiden hand

The fairest votary took up that fire
Which many legions of true hearts had warmed;
And so the General of hot desire
Was, sleeping, by a virgin hand disarmed.

This brand she quenched in a cool well by,
Which from Love's fire took heat perpetual,
Growing a bath and healthful remedy,
For men diseased; but I, my mistress' thrall,

Came there for cure and this by that I prove,
Love's fire heats water, water cools not love.

And, just for fun, here are a few images from instances where I accidentally resubmitted a prompt when I already had an image that I liked.