Apologies for cross-posting.
From The Guardian online today:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/jan/27/obama-state-of-the-union-addresses-wordle-presidents
"How did Barack Obama <http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/barack-obama>'s first
address rate against the debut State of the Union speeches from previous
American presidents? To compare, we've taken the text of the first addresses
of key presidents from the University of California's American Presidency
Project <http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/sou.php>, a scheme to digitally
archive and make public thousands of presidential papers and documents in a
searchable database. By counting the frequency of words used (and filtering
out common words and the least used), we can see where each president's
focus lay.
And to really see how language compares, there is still no finer tool than
Wordle.net <http://wordle.net/>. We've taken the text and visualised it
using the versatile tool. Click on the image above to see how Obama compares
to Bush, Roosevelt, Reagan, Lincoln, Washington and JFK."
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From their "frequency of words used (and filtering out common words used
and the least used)", I put the nine words they listed for Obama, Bush and
Lincoln in order of frequency---and in a 'sentence' form:
Obama: "I will more people America new government Congress must."
Bush: "Will I America world must people new more Congress government."
Lincoln: "I Congress will government more people new must world."
I suppose this qualifies as a 'found' poem.
The Wordle.net schema cited in the article is fascinating, BTW.
Best,
Judy
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Frisky Moll Press: http://judithprince.com/home.html
"I can't read my library card." --Jeff Hecker, Norfolk, VA
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