Spam Poetry

Spam Poetry (AKA spoetry) is poetry created from the subjects of spam email, and in the last 6 or 7 years it has become a popular diversion amongst the Internet community. Most spoetry is created manually, with the author using William Burroughs' cut-up technique on spam subjects from his or her inbox, and the spam is often modified somewhat to fit the poem.

I'm not much of a poet (it takes me some time, to think of a rhyme), so my spoetry is all computer generated: a list of over 100,000 spam subjects is scanned (one of the advantages of being a sys admin is access to a huge amout of spam) , and a line picked at random. The program then counts the syllables and works its way through the list a second time, this time looking for a line with a similar number of syllables which rhymes. The result, a spam couplet (maybe I should christen this a 'scouplet'). Of course, this gives mixed results - sometimes the couplets don't scan very well, sometimes they are just bland. But when it does work, the couplets are catching and funny.

Click here to generate couplets in real-time (page will take around 30 seconds to load), or enjoy some of my favourites below:

Re: FSA - Appointment of Secretary to the Board
 Katharine find health insurance you can afford

RE: ronaldo offers official apology
 of Office AutoReply: [SPAM] archaeology

The ultimate gift, with an affordable price
 Business building information and advice

This Week in Finance
 Be wise  get a chance

Earn over 25k as a PC Engineer
 Break through fresh high income career

Have a ball!
 Conference call

your immediate attention is required
 DELIVERY FAILURE: Delivery time expired

You can find more of my favourite couplets here

None of this would be possible without Brian "tuffy" Langenberger's excellent Rhyming Dictionary.

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