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Bio Poems: Unlocking the Essence of Your Identity through Verse

Bio poems offer a unique and introspective way to express your identity through the power of verse. By distilling the essence of your life, experiences, and emotions into a concise yet impactful poem, you can unlock the beauty and complexity of your personal journey. In this article, we will delve into the intricacies of bio poems, explore their structure and purpose, and showcase a selection of inspiring examples.

The Structure of a Bio Poem

Inspiring bio poem examples, the power of bio poems, what are bio poems.

Bio poems are a poetic form that allows individuals to express their identities, reflect on their significant experiences, and celebrate their uniqueness. Unlike traditional autobiographies or biographies, which tend to follow a linear narrative, bio poems distill a person's essence into concise yet potent verses.

A bio poem typically adheres to a specific structure, offering guidelines to capture the key details of a person's life. While there are variations, the most common structure includes specific lines for each element:

Line 1: First name Line 2: Four describing traits Line 3: Sibling of... Line 4: Lover of... Line 5: Who feels... Line 6: Who needs... Line 7: Who gives... Line 8: Who fears... Line 9: Resident of... Line 10: Last name

Now, let's explore a selection of compelling bio poems that beautifully encapsulate the essence of individuals from diverse walks of life.

Poem 1: Life's Symphony

I am Harmony, Peaceful, compassionate, resilient, vibrant, Sister of serenity, Lover of all things melodic, Who feels the rhythm of every heartbeat, Who needs moments of solitude, Who gives solace through music, Who fears dissonance, Resident of the bucolic valleys, Symphony.

Poem 2: Nature's Embrace

I am Willow, Mysterious, tranquil, nurturing, free, Sibling of whispering winds, Lover of earth's gentle touch, Who feels the embrace of every sunrise, Who needs the warmth of sunshine, Who gives shelter to woodland creatures, Who fears the ravages of time, Resident of the verdant meadows, Tree.

Poem 3: Silent Strength

I am River, Persistent, flowing, powerful, profound, Sibling of babbling brooks, Lover of the tranquil moonlit nights, Who feels the weight of untold secrets, Who needs the soothing arms of nature, Who gives life to fertile plains, Who fears the erosion of dreams, Resident of the untamed wilderness, Stream.

Bio poems hold profound power, providing a creative and intimate space for introspection, self-expression, and self-discovery. They allow individuals to distill their essence into a concise form, shedding light on their unique experiences, emotions, and aspirations. By constructing a bio poem, one delves deep within and unearths hidden treasures of their identity.

Whether used as a personal exercise of reflection or as a means of sharing oneself with others, bio poems unlock the door to vulnerability and authenticity. Through the embodiment of universal and individual experiences within the lines of verse, bio poems create a shared connection between the poet and the reader.

Bio poems celebrate the beauty, complexity, and diversity of human existence. These concise yet powerful verses distill the essence of individuals, offering glimpses into their lives, thoughts, and emotions. By unlocking the power of language and self-reflection, bio poems provide a platform for exploring and expressing one's identity, creating a bridge between the poet and the reader.

So, pick up your pen, embark on a journey of self-discovery, and let the magic of bio poems unfold as you craft your own personal masterpiece.

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How to Teach Your Students to Write Biography Poems

Students can tell their stories in a playful way

Dan Tardif / Getty Images

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B.A., Sociology, University of California Los Angeles

Biography poems, or Bio poems, are a quick and easy way for young students to learn poetry . They allow students to express their personality and introduce themselves to others, making them a perfect activity for the first day of school. Bio poems can also be used to describe someone else, making them perfect for history lessons or other subjects where students might be studying key historical figures. You will see in the examples below that students can research someone like Rosa Parks , then create a Bio poem on her.

What Are Bio Poems?

Below, you can read three examples of Bio Poems. One is about a teacher, one is about a student, and one is about a famous person that students researched.

Sample Bio Poem of a Teacher

Kind, funny, hard-working, loving

Sister of Amy

Lover of Computers, Friends, and Harry Potter books

Who feels excited on the first day of school, sad when she watches the news, and happy to open a new book

Who needs people, books, and computers

Who gives help to students, smiles to her husband, and letters to family and friends

Who fears war, hunger, and bad days

Who would like to visit the pyramids in Egypt , teach the world’s greatest third graders, and read on the beach in Hawaii

Resident of California

Sample Bio Poem of a Student

Athletic, strong, determined, fast

Son of Janelle and Nathan and brother to Reesa

Loves the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books, sports, and Baked Beans

Who feels happy when playing with friends, and happy when playing sports and being with his family

Who needs books, family, and Legos to by happy in life

Who makes people laugh when someone is sad, who likes to gives smiles, and loves hugging

Fears the dark, spiders, clowns

Would like to visit Paris, France

Resident of Buffalo

Sample Bio Poem of a Person Researched

Determined, Brave, Strong, Caring

Wife of Raymond Parks, and mother of her children

Who loved freedom, education, and equality

Who loved to stand up for her beliefs, loved to help others, disliked discrimination

Who feared racism would never end, who feared she wouldn't be able to make a difference, who feared she wouldn't have enough courage to fight

Who changed history by standing up to others and making a difference in equality

Who wanted to see an end to discrimination, a world that was equal, and respect was given to all

Born in Alabama, and resident in Detroit

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Expressing Identity Through Bio Poems

Poetry is a powerful tool for self-expression and reflection. One captivating form of poetry that allows individuals to share their unique stories is the bio poem. A bio poem is a structured poem that provides a glimpse into a person's life, thoughts, and experiences. By capturing key aspects of their identity, bio poems become a canvas for personal expression. In this article, we will explore the beauty of bio poems by providing examples that showcase the diverse ways in which individuals can tell their stories.

Example 1: A Bio Poem Celebrating Strength

Example 2: a bio poem reflecting on life's journey, example 3: a bio poem celebrating creativity.

Miranda Courageous, determined, and resilient Lover of adventure, seeker of the unknown Who feels exhilaration in the face of challenge Who fears conformity and mediocrity Who would like to see a world united in compassion Resident of a heart filled with wanderlust Smith

In this example, Miranda presents herself as a person filled with strength and determination. She embraces her love for adventure and seeks to push her boundaries. Miranda's poem also reveals her desire for a more empathetic world, emphasizing her longing for unity and compassion.

Liam Dreamer, philosopher, eternal student Lover of books, melodies, and starry nights Who feels the weight of time's passing moments Who fears the regrets of an unlived life Who would like to see a world connected by empathy Resident of a mind always seeking knowledge Johnson

Liam's bio poem reflects his introspective nature and thirst for knowledge. The poem suggests that he cherishes the beauty of literature, music, and the cosmos. By highlighting his fear of an unlived life, Liam emphasizes the importance of seizing opportunities and making the most of each passing moment.

Amelia Imaginative, artistic, free-spirited soul Lover of colors, melodies, and blank canvases Who feels joy in each stroke of a paintbrush Who fears the silence of a creative block Who would like to see a world where art is valued Resident of a heart that beats to a creative rhythm Anderson

Amelia's bio poem celebrates her creative spirit and passion for artistic expression. The poem suggests that she finds immense joy and fulfillment in the act of painting. Her fear of a creative block highlights the vulnerability and sensitivity that often accompanies the artistic process.

Bio poems offer a beautiful and concise way to express one's identity, aspirations, and fears. Through carefully chosen words and structured lines, individuals can create poetic snapshots of their lives. Whether celebrating strengths, reflecting on life's journey, or honoring creativity, bio poems provide an opportunity for self-reflection and connection. So why not give it a try? Write your own bio poem and embrace the power of poetry to tell your unique story.

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How to Write a Biopoem

Last Updated: September 5, 2023 Fact Checked

wikiHow is a “wiki,” similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create this article, 15 people, some anonymous, worked to edit and improve it over time. There are 7 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 69,901 times. Learn more...

A biopoem is a poem with a very specific formula. It describes a person, and it is 10 lines long. You can write a biopoem about yourself or about someone else; the formula works either way.

Constructing a Biopoem

Step 1 In the first line, use the person’s first name.

Fierce unyielding brave tall
Son of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks Lincoln, husband of Mary Lincoln
Lover of freedom, tall hats, and good speeches
Who felt patriotism for his country and who felt grief at a divided nation
Who feared what would become of a divided country, feared the south would win, feared the costs of war
Who issued the Emancipation Proclamation and who won the Civil War
Who wanted to see the nation whole again
Born in Kentucky, died at Ford’s Theater in Washington, DC

Writing and Formatting a Biopoem

Step 1 Think about what characteristics make a person unique.

Sample Biopoem

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Type: Structure, Other Requirement, Simple Description: This poetic form seems to have come from some teacher’s lesson plan for studying a book with lots of characters and relationships; however, that’s no reason not to co-opt and extend it to daily life. The bio-poem is written about one of the main characters of a book or your life with the contents of the eleven lines of the poem as described in the schematic. Somewhere in the poem, refer to a symbol from the book or your life that helps define the individual’s actions, emotions, personality, etc. Impressions: Apparently used as a teaching tool. Schematic: Line 1: The character’s first name Line 2: Four words that describe the character Line 3: Brother or sister of… Line 4: Lover of…(three ideas or people) Line 5: Who feels…(three ideas) Line 6: Who needs…(three ideas) Line 7: Who gives…(three ideas) Line 8: Who fears…(three ideas) Line 9: Who would like to see… Line 10: Resident of Line 11: His or her last name Rhythm/Stanza Length: 11 Line/Poem Length: 11 Pasted with permission from http://www.poetrybase.info/forms/000/18.shtml My thanks to Charles L. Weatherford for his years of work on the wonderful Poetrybase resource.

Lee Child’s Protagonist (Bio Poem)

Jack is his first name. Fearless, Large, Retired Army MP Major, Powerful with no siblings lover of justice, independent women, and his freedom who feels political correctness is nonsense, one should get their retaliation in first, and should observe the details, who needs little sleep, little warning, and no commitments, He gives bad guys bad times, women ideas, and motels false names. He fears no one he has yet met, and no situation with options. He would like to see a different place tomorrow. He has no permanent address. Reacher is what he’s called.

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How to Write a Biog

So you’re going to have your first poem published, or you’ve been accepted onto a writing programme, or you’re going to perform somewhere, or maybe you’re even setting up your own website… and you need a biog..

What on earth is a biog?

A biog (or bio, or ‘short biographical statement’) briefly introduces you as a writer. The idea is to give a flavour of the person behind the poem, and where else the reader might find your work. As you gain more experience, your biog will grow and change. It’s a bit like a mini, informal poetry CV.

The best way to understand what a biog is is to read some examples. Google some of your favourite poets’ names + biog, flick through a poetry magazine, or look at the end of Young Poets Network features and challenges . Here are a few made-up examples:

Noah is a seventeen-year-old poet from Bangor. In 2020, he was the second-prize winner in the Made-Up Challenge on The Poetry Society’s Young Poets Network, and performed at the Senedd Cymru as a result. Ray James is a Jamaican-British poet who writes about football, cats, and cats playing football. They tweet @PussInFootballBoots Zara is studying Physics at the University of Birmingham. She was a Foyle Young Poet in 2017, is a member of Young Identity, and has performed at the Hippodrome, Birmingham. Her poems have appeared in Really Excellent Poetry Magazine, Wow So Impressive Poetry Journal and An Anthology of Brilliant New Poets (2020). Her favourite poet is Mary Jean Chan. Mohammed Abidal is a sixth former at a local school. He was born in France and grew up in Aberdeen. This is the first time he has ever performed his poetry.

You can see that, depending on the context, you might want to give different information. Mohammed’s biog sounds like it’ll be read out before he goes on stage – so the audience will have some geographical context for ‘a local school’. It’s usually best practice not to name your school or a place more specific than your city or county, to protect your own identity.

Young poet performing at a Young Poets Takeover event

What do I write about?

First of all – shorter biogs are usually preferable, so you don’t need to answer everything we’re about to cover. And if you do have an answer, cherry-pick the most interesting or important details. But here are some ideas…

Include all your writing accolades if you’ve got any – have you won or been a runner-up in any competitions? Have you been published anywhere? Have you performed anywhere?

Include any writing activities you get up to: do you edit a magazine? Do you run a poetry society/club or a night? Are you part of a poetry collective or mentoring programme?

And, if you have space, the more general stuff: what are your interests (poetry and otherwise)? What kind of writing do you do? Are you studying? Are you working? Again – read some other people’s biogs. What do you find it interesting to hear about when poets are introduced?

But I’ve never been published/performed anywhere!

That’s okay! You can still give the audience an idea of who you are – go for the more general stuff. You’ll be able to update it as you go.

How do I present it?

It depends!

Is someone else asking you for a biog? If so, have they specified how they want it to be presented (e.g. is there a maximum word count? Have they specified that they want it written in the first or third person*)? Follow their instructions if so.

If they haven’t given you any instructions, it’s probably best practice to write it in the third person and write around 30-60 words , like the examples above. They’re usually not long at all.

If you’re writing a biog for your own website or blog, it can be as long as you like, and you can include a wider range of details. You can write it in the first or third person. Again, look at your favourite poets’ websites for ideas.

And in terms of structure… well, you’re a poet! As long as it makes sense, flows nicely and sounds as impressive and interesting as you can make it, you’ll have done a great job.

Final pro tip – have a document where you keep versions of your biog of different lengths. Some people might want a one-sentence biog; some people might ask you for 50 or 100 words or want the full works. Having all these to hand in advance just makes your life much easier!

*First person = “ I am a poet from Newcastle, my favourite writer is…” Third person = “ Jasmine is a poet from Newcastle, her favourite writer is…”

Still got questions leave your queries (and your own tips and biogs) in the comments below..

Published June 2021

Autobiographical Poetry

Living reference work entry
First Online: 12 June 2021
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Mihye Bang 2

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Victorian women poets wrote in diverse autobiographical modes. Victorian women’s autobiographical poetry was not confined to the “autobiography in verse” as defined by the male canon with explicitly autobiographical intentions, and an extended definition of it is necessary to illuminate their self-writing in verse. While prejudices about women self-exposure to public prevailed during the nineteenth century, women poets were not able to recount their private lives freely. Instead, they showed differing uses of self-reflexivity in their poems, including recollection of the poet’s past, appropriation of the poet’s biographical womanhood to create a lyric persona, and fictionalized self-reflection as the artist. Bourgeois women poets generally preferred to imply their biographical facts in their lyric poetry or mediate them through dramatization or fictionalization. Working-class women poets, in contrast, often explicitly revealed their nonnormative life experiences in an effort...

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Anderson, Linda. 2001. Autobiography . London: Routledge.

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Friedman, Susan Stanford. 1988. Women’s autobiographical selves: Theory and practice. In The private self: Theory and practice of women’s autobiographical writings , ed. Shari Benstock, 34–62. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press.

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Peterson, Linda H. 1999. ‘For my better self’: Auto/biographies of the poetess, the Prelude of the poet laureate, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Aurora Leigh . In Traditions of Victorian women’s autobiography: the poetics and politics of life writing , 109–145. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia.

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Bang, M. (2021). Autobiographical Poetry. In: The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Victorian Women's Writing. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02721-6_340-1

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Maya Angelou: The Meaning Behind Her Poem "Still I Rise"

Poetry helped Angelou with her mutism as a child

Angelou grew up amid the degradations of the Jim Crow South . At the age of seven, she was raped by her mother's boyfriend, who was killed (presumably by family members seeking retribution) after she reported the crime. Following this trauma, Angelou sought refuge in mutism. But even when she wouldn't speak, Angelou studied and memorized poems, which gave her a unique understanding of language.

A desire to express her love for poetry by speaking it aloud helped draw Angelou out of her mutism. Yet she didn't forget the wide breadth of literature she'd taken in, which included works by Paul Laurence Dunbar, Langston Hughes , Countee Cullen , Emily Dickinson and William Shakespeare .

She penned her first verses when she was still in school, and in the late 1950s, Angelou joined the Harlem Writers Guild , where she interacted with James Baldwin and other writers. She authored plays, including one that was produced off-Broadway in 1960. While living in Egypt in the early 1960s, she edited an English-language newspaper and also spent time as a singer, dancer and actress.

However, Angelou admitted that writing poetry was always a challenge for her: "When I come close to saying what I want to, I’m over the moon. Even if it’s just six lines, I pull out the champagne. But until then, my goodness, those lines worry me like a mosquito in the ear."

The death of Martin Luther King Jr. propelled Angelou to throw herself into her writing

In 1968, things changed for the writer — she was preparing to join forces with Martin Luther King Jr. to bring attention to his Poor People’s Campaign and decided to take some time to celebrate her 40th birthday before accompanying King. As Angelou was getting ready for a party on her birthday, April 4, she learned King had been assassinated . Years passed before she commemorated her birthday again.

One way Angelou coped following King's death was to write. Her breakthrough memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings , was published in 1969. This was followed by additional memoirs, books of poetry and plays, including a dramatic musical production called And Still I Rise that was produced in Oakland, California, in 1976. In 1978, her poetry collection And Still I Rise was published. "Still I Rise" was included in this book

READ MORE: The Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

Angelou wanted to write a poem about 'defeat' and 'survival'

"Still I Rise" begins with, "You may write me down in history / With your bitter, twisted lies, / You may trod me in the very dirt / But still, like dust, I'll rise." Throughout the poem, the types of harrowing and unjust treatment that Black people in America are addressed alongside declarations of "I rise."

Angelou drew upon blues, gospel and spiritual songs as inspiration for the balladic patterns of the poem. She uses a "call and response" technique, references her sexuality and perhaps because she appreciated African American oral traditions, the power of the poem becomes even more evident when recited.

The ability to cope with adversity is a strong theme throughout "Still I Rise." "All my work, my life, everything is about survival," she once stated . "All my work is meant to say, 'You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated.' In fact, the encountering may be the very experience which creates the vitality and the power to endure."

For Angelou, Black people in America had remained "intact enough to survive, and to do better than that — to thrive. And to do better than that — to thrive with some passion, some compassion, some humor and some style." In a 2009 interview , Angelou, whose great-grandmother was born into slavery, expressed her feeling that enslaved African Americans "couldn't have survived slavery without having hope that it would get better." This sentiment can be seen in the final lines of "Still I Rise": "I am the dream and the hope of the slave. / I rise / I rise / I rise."

READ MORE: Maya Angelou and 9 Other Best-Selling Black Authors

"Still I Rise" continues to resonate with new generations

Once, when asked what work could offer succor in difficult times, Angelou referred to "Still I Rise." She noted it was "a poem of mine that is very popular in the country. And a number of people use it. A lot of Black of people and a lot of white people use it."

Decades after it was published, people continue to reference "Still I Rise." In 1994, the United Negro College Fund , aiming for a more hopeful tone in its appeals, created a spot that featured Angelou reading part of "Still I Rise." Also that year, Nelson Mandela , having read Angelou's work while in prison during apartheid, recited "Still I Rise" when he was inaugurated as South Africa's president. A posthumous 1999 release from Tupac Shakur — who had cried in Angelou's arms when they were filming Poetic Justice together — was called Still I Rise , and among the tracks was a song with the same title. In 2017, Serena Williams issued a response that quoted some of Angelou's verses after a fellow tennis player made racist remarks about the child Williams was then expecting. That same year, a documentary about Angelou was called And Still I Rise . The film ends with Angelou's voice reciting the powerful poem — forever cementing its legacy.

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Taylor Swift’s Tortured Poetry

By Amanda Petrusich

An illustrated portrait of Taylor Swift.

In the past several months, Taylor Swift has become culturally ubiquitous in a way that feels nearly terrifying. Superstardom tends to turn normal people into cartoons, projections, gods, monsters. Swift has been inching toward some sort of tipping point for a while. The most recent catalyst was, in part, love: in the midst of her record-breaking Eras Tour , Swift, who is thirty-four, began dating Travis Kelce , a tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs. Whenever Swift appeared at one of Kelce’s games, the broadcasters whipped their extra-high-definition cameras toward her, sending legions of amateur lip-readers scrambling for their phones. I’m paid to give legibility to such things, and even I couldn’t help but think that we were crossing some sort of Rubicon with regard to our collective sanity. Swift was everywhere, beheld by everyone. She is one of the most streamed artists of all time on Spotify; Billboard reported that, at one point, she accounted for seven per cent of all vinyl sales in the U.S. Swift is a capable and hugely savvy businesswoman (a billionaire, in fact), yet I began to worry about her in a nearly maternal way: How could anyone survive that sort of scrutiny and retain her humanity? Detaching from reality can be lethal for a pop star, particularly one known for her Everygirl candor. I thought of the oft-memed bit from “Arrested Development,” in which Lucille Bluth, the oblivious matriarch, asks, “I mean, it’s one banana, Michael—what could it cost? Ten dollars?”

This month, Swift released “The Tortured Poets Department,” her eleventh studio album. She has now reached a level of virtuosity within her genre that feels nearly immutable—she’s too practiced, too masterly, to swing and really miss. But “The Tortured Poets Department” suffers from being too long (two hours after it was released, Swift announced a second disk, bringing the total number of tracks to thirty-one) and too familiar. Swift co-wrote most of the record with Jack Antonoff and with Aaron Dessner. (The two producers have oppositional melodic sensibilities: Antonoff sharpens Swift; Dessner softens her.) The new songs suggest that, after a decade, her partnership with Antonoff has perhaps run its course. The tracks written with Dessner are gentler, more tender, and more surprising. The raw and stirring “Robin” seems to address a child—either a very young Swift (the album contains several references to her hijacked youth, including “The Manuscript,” a sombre song about a relationship with an older man), or maybe a future son or daughter.

“The Tortured Poets Department” was released following the end of Swift’s six-year relationship with the actor Joe Alwyn, and the album is mostly about the utter unreliability of love—how bonkers it is that we build our entire lives around a feeling that can simply dissipate. “You said I’m the love of your life / About a million times,” Swift sings on “Loml,” a wrenching piano ballad. “You shit-talked me under the table, talking rings and talking cradles.” Shortly after Swift and Alwyn split, she reportedly had a fling with Matty Healy , the front man for the British rock band the 1975. (“I took the miracle move-on drug / The effects were temporary,” she sings on “Fortnight.”) Healy is a provocateur, prone to making loutish jokes; onstage, he smokes, eats raw steak, and makes out with strangers. The rumored relationship sent Swifties into spasms of outrage, and revealed the unusual extent to which Swift is beholden to her fans. She has encouraged and nurtured a parasocial affection (at times she nearly demanded it: inviting fans to her home, baking them cookies), and she now has to contend with their sense of ownership over her life. On “But Daddy I Love Him,” she scornfully chastises the “judgmental creeps” who relentlessly hounded her about her love life: “I’d rather burn my whole life down / Than listen to one more second of all this bitching and moaning.” (She saves the nastiest barb for the final verse: “All the wine moms are still holding out.”) Regardless, things with Healy ended fast, and, a few months later, she did the most wholesome thing possible: she started dating a football player whose team would go on to win the Super Bowl.

Quite a few of the album’s lyrics seem to evoke Healy: “You’re not Dylan Thomas / I’m not Patti Smith / This ain’t the Chelsea Hotel / We’re modern idiots,” Swift sings on the title track, a shimmering song about broken people clinging to each other. I like that line—it suggests self-awareness—but it’s followed by one of the weirdest verses of Swift’s career: “You smoked then ate seven bars of chocolate / We declared Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist / I scratch your head, you fall asleep / Like a tattooed golden retriever.” Other lyrics lack Swift’s signature precision: “At dinner you take my ring off my middle finger and put it on the one people put wedding rings on,” she sings. Even the greatest poets whiff a phrase now and then, but a lot of the language on the record is either incoherent (“I was a functioning alcoholic till nobody noticed my new aesthetic”) or just generally bewildering (“Florida is one hell of a drug”). My favorite lyrics are the simplest, and are delivered with a kind of exhausted calm. On “Down Bad,” a woozy song about feeling like shit, Swift admits defeat: “Now I’m down bad, crying at the gym / Everything comes out teen-age petulance / Fuck it if I can’t have him.” Feel you, dude.

Each of Swift’s records has a distinct visual component—this is more or less the premise of the Eras Tour . “The Tortured Poets Department” is preoccupied with writerly accoutrements, but the vibe is ultimately more high-end stationery store than musty rare-books room. Initially, the title seemed as if it might be a smirking reference to Joe Alwyn (he once joked about being part of a WhatsApp group called the Tortured Man Club). But I find that the phrase works well as a summation of Swift’s entire self-conception. She has always made a big deal about her pain being generative. “This writer is of the firm belief that our tears become holy in the form of ink on the page,” she wrote on Instagram. She has talked about this album as if the songs were mere monuments to her suffering: “Once we have spoken our saddest story, we can be free of it.”

An unusual number of Swift’s songs portray love as combative, perhaps because she is so prone to working from a place of wounded longing. On “Better Than Revenge,” a song she wrote at eighteen, Swift sings about art as a useful weapon, a way to punish anyone who does her dirty: “She thinks I’m psycho / ’Cause I like to rhyme her name with things.” It’s a funny lyric, but, by Swift’s current age, most people understand that love isn’t about winning. (Art isn’t, either.) Yet, in Swift’s universe, love is often a battlefield. On “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?,” she catalogues the ways in which fame can pervert and destroy a person: “I was tame, I was gentle, till the circus life made me mean,” she sings. She is paranoid, wild-eyed: “Tell me everything is not about me / But what if it is ?” (After the year Swift has had, she’s not wrong to ask.) The song itself is so tightly produced that it doesn’t sound dangerous. But, midway through, her voice briefly goes feral. I found the moment thrilling, which is maybe part of the problem.

In the weeks before “The Tortured Poets Department” was released, it seemed as though a backlash was inevitable. Swift’s lyrics are often focussed on her perseverance against all odds, but, these days, she is too omnipresent and powerful to make a very convincing underdog. Still, interest in Swift has yet to diminish or fully sour. She announced the album at the Grammys, in February, as she was accepting the award for Best Pop Vocal Album, for her previous record, “Midnights.” I found her speech so profoundly mercenary it was sort of funny. “I want to say thank you to the fans by telling you a secret that I’ve been keeping from you for the last two years, which is that my brand-new album comes out April 19th,” Swift said. “I’m gonna go and post the cover.”

As I’ve grown older, I’ve mostly stopped thinking about art and commerce as being fundamentally at odds. But there are times when the rapaciousness of our current pop stars seems grasping and ugly. I’m not saying that pop music needs to be ideologically pure—it wouldn’t be much fun if it were—but maybe it’s time to cool it a little with the commercials? A couple of days before the album’s release, Swift unveiled a library-esque display at the Grove, a shopping mall in Los Angeles. It included several pages of typewritten lyrics on faux aged paper, arranged as though they had recently been tugged from the platen of a Smith Corona. (The word “talisman” was misspelled on one, to the delight of the haters.) The Spotify logo was featured prominently at the bottom of each page. Once again, I laughed. What is the point of all that money if it doesn’t buy you freedom from corporate branding? For a million reasons—her adoption of the “poet” persona; her already unprecedented streaming numbers—such an egregious display of sponsorship was worse than just incongruous. It was, as they say, cringe.

Among the other clues Swift doled out were five exclusive playlists for Apple Music (sorry, Spotify!), comprising her own songs and organized according to the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. At first, I thought the playlists were just another bit of overwrought marketing, but the more I listened to “The Tortured Poets Department” the more germane the concept felt. Anyone who has grieved knows that these categories are not a ladder you climb toward peace: it is possible, instead, to feel all of them at once, briefly or forever. Each stage is evident on “The Tortured Poets Department.” Sometimes they oppose one another: Swift is cocky and self-loathing, tough and vulnerable, totally fine and completely destroyed. She is free, but trapped. Dominant, powerless. She wants this, but she doesn’t. Those sorts of contradictions can be dizzying, but, in the end, they’re also the last things keeping her human. ♦

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Generative A.I. Arrives in the Gene Editing World of CRISPR

Much as ChatGPT generates poetry, a new A.I. system devises blueprints for microscopic mechanisms that can edit your DNA.

The physical structure of OpenCRISPR-1, a gene editor created by A.I. technology from Profluent. Credit... Video by Profluent Bio

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By Cade Metz

Has reported on the intersection of A.I. and health care for a decade.

April 22, 2024

Generative A.I. technologies can write poetry and computer programs or create images of teddy bears and videos of cartoon characters that look like something from a Hollywood movie.

Now, new A.I. technology is generating blueprints for microscopic biological mechanisms that can edit your DNA, pointing to a future when scientists can battle illness and diseases with even greater precision and speed than they can today.

Described in a research paper published on Monday by a Berkeley, Calif., startup called Profluent, the technology is based on the same methods that drive ChatGPT, the online chatbot that launched the A.I. boom after its release in 2022 . The company is expected to present the paper next month at the annual meeting of the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy.

Much as ChatGPT learns to generate language by analyzing Wikipedia articles, books and chat logs, Profluent’s technology creates new gene editors after analyzing enormous amounts of biological data, including microscopic mechanisms that scientists already use to edit human DNA.

These gene editors are based on Nobel Prize-winning methods involving biological mechanisms called CRISPR. Technology based on CRISPR is already changing how scientists study and fight illness and disease , providing a way of altering genes that cause hereditary conditions, such as sickle cell anemia and blindness.

A group of casually dressed people pose on a cement walkway.

Previously, CRISPR methods used mechanisms found in nature — biological material gleaned from bacteria that allows these microscopic organisms to fight off germs.

“They have never existed on Earth,” said James Fraser, a professor and chair of the department of bioengineering and therapeutic sciences at the University of California, San Francisco, who has read Profluent’s research paper. “The system has learned from nature to create them, but they are new.”

The hope is that the technology will eventually produce gene editors that are more nimble and more powerful than those that have been honed over billions of years of evolution.

On Monday, Profluent also said that it had used one of these A.I.-generated gene editors to edit human DNA and that it was “open sourcing” this editor, called OpenCRISPR-1. That means it is allowing individuals, academic labs and companies to experiment with the technology for free.

A.I. researchers often open source the underlying software that drives their A.I. systems , because it allows others to build on their work and accelerate the development of new technologies. But it is less common for biological labs and pharmaceutical companies to open source inventions like OpenCRISPR-1.

Though Profluent is open sourcing the gene editors generated by its A.I. technology, it is not open sourcing the A.I. technology itself.

The project is part of a wider effort to build A.I. technologies that can improve medical care. Scientists at the University of Washington, for instance, are using the methods behind chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and image generators like Midjourney to create entirely new proteins — the microscopic molecules that drive all human life — as they work to accelerate the development of new vaccines and medicines.

(The New York Times has sued OpenAI and its partner, Microsoft, on claims of copyright infringement involving artificial intelligence systems that generate text.)

Generative A.I. technologies are driven by what scientists call a neural network , a mathematical system that learns skills by analyzing vast amounts of data. The image creator Midjourney, for example, is underpinned by a neural network that has analyzed millions of digital images and the captions that describe each of those images. The system learned to recognize the links between the images and the words. So when you ask it for an image of a rhinoceros leaping off the Golden Gate Bridge, it knows what to do.

Profluent’s technology is driven by a similar A.I. model that learns from sequences of amino acids and nucleic acids — the chemical compounds that define the microscopic biological mechanisms that scientists use to edit genes. Essentially, it analyzes the behavior of CRISPR gene editors pulled from nature and learns how to generate entirely new gene editors.

“These A.I. models learn from sequences — whether those are sequences of characters or words or computer code or amino acids,” said Profluent’s chief executive, Ali Madani, a researcher who previously worked in the A.I. lab at the software giant Salesforce.

Profluent has not yet put these synthetic gene editors through clinical trials, so it is not clear if they can match or exceed the performance of CRISPR. But this proof of concept shows that A.I. models can produce something capable of editing the human genome.

Still, it is unlikely to affect health care in the short term. Fyodor Urnov, a gene editing pioneer and scientific director at the Innovative Genomics Institute at the University of California, Berkeley, said scientists had no shortage of naturally occurring gene editors that they could use to fight illness and disease. The bottleneck, he said, is the cost of pushing these editors through preclinical studies, such as safety, manufacturing and regulatory reviews, before they can be used on patients.

But generative A.I. systems often hold enormous potential because they tend to improve quickly as they learn from increasingly large amounts of data. If technology like Profluent’s continues to improve, it could eventually allow scientists to edit genes in far more precise ways. The hope, Dr. Urnov said, is that this could, in the long term, lead to a world where medicines and treatments are quickly tailored to individual people even faster than we can do today.

“I dream of a world where we have CRISPR on demand within weeks,” he said.

Scientists have long cautioned against using CRISPR for human enhancement because it is a relatively new technology that could potentially have undesired side effects, such as triggering cancer, and have warned against unethical uses, such as genetically modifying human embryos.

This is also a concern with synthetic gene editors. But scientists already have access to everything they need to edit embryos.

“A bad actor, someone who is unethical, is not worried about whether they use an A.I.-created editor or not,” Dr. Fraser said. “They are just going to go ahead and use what’s available.”

Cade Metz writes about artificial intelligence, driverless cars, robotics, virtual reality and other emerging areas of technology. More about Cade Metz

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