Google’s “Autocomplete” function, in its efforts to save you those precious seconds by anticipating your search query as you type it, brings all sorts of unexpected surprises.

But as well as the libels ^[1], the Autocomplete algorithm can do poetry. Type in “hope is”, for example, and you’ll get:

hope is the thing with feathers

hope is the last thing that dies in man

hope is the first step on the road to disappointment

hope island

That’s one of dozens of examples collected at the new Tumblr site “Google Poetics” ^[2].

“Autocomplete” serves up intriguing results because it is geared by millions of users’ previous searches, explain the blog’s anthologists, writers based in Helsinki, on their Facebook page ^[3].

“Obviously Google is not Shakespeare, Whitman or Dickinson – it can not illuminate the unknown,” write Sampsa Nuotio and Raisa Omaheim. “But it does reveal our inner workings, our fears and prejudices, secrets and shames, the hope and longing of a modern individual.”

A couple more.

Who can st

who can stand

who can stand against

who can stop the moon

who can stop the rain

And:

i th

i think therefore i am

i think we’re alone now

i the lord of sea and sky

i think im pregnant

Via @Brainpicker