Visualizing Poetry: Tools for Critical Analysis

Abstract

Although digital media allegedly privileges “distant reading”, we can develop tools
and methods to close-read and analyze documents. Moreover, these analyses can be
visualized before being discussed by readers. We have developed a set of visualization tools that aim to help scholars carry out thecritical analysis of poetry. More specifically, the purpose of the visualization tools is to help synthesize and bring forward the key elements found in poems.

As results, we found that the tools we developed bring forward the graphical
elements of poetry. Additionally, our tools place special emphasis in viewing the poems from different perspectives and visualizing the textual representation of the poetic texts in their formal structure.