The Wordle Challenge

Scott Hardie | August 15, 2008
1) Look up a classic short story or long poem that most of us have read. Copy the full text of it into your clipboard.

2) Go to wordle.net, a site for generating word clouds. Click the "Create" tab.

3) Paste the story/poem into the form and submit. Randomize until the word cloud looks good.

4) Post an image of the word cloud online, and link to it here so we can guess what your source was. Be careful not to give it away in your filename.

When guessing, play fair and leave Google out of it. Let's see how many we can solve by memory.

(If you need help getting the word cloud online: Press the "Print Screen" key on your keyboard when looking at it. Paste into Word or Paint or another program that can handle pictures. Save the file, and email it to "wordle" at this domain as an attachment. I'll publish it for you.)

Scott Hardie | August 15, 2008
I'll start us off:

Amy Austin | August 15, 2008
"The Raven" -- Poe

Amy Austin | August 15, 2008


Dammit...

Scott Hardie | August 15, 2008
Sorry. You can't show the applet on Wordle as an image here. You could link to the page as a text link, once you "save to gallery," if it doesn't have a title that gives the answer away.

Amy Austin | August 15, 2008
Yeah, I figured... I just sent it to you.

Neat little site...

Scott Hardie | August 15, 2008
From Amy:

Amy Austin | August 15, 2008
Hmm... I didn't clip the white space.

(You beat me to that!)

Steve West | August 15, 2008
The Gift of the Magi

Scott Hardie | August 15, 2008
From Steve West:

Scott Hardie | August 15, 2008
ClassicReader.com has lots of possibilities.

Erik Bates | August 15, 2008
[hidden by request]

Scott Hardie | August 15, 2008
From Steve West:

Megan Baxter | August 15, 2008
The last is from Henry V

Steve West | August 15, 2008
The St. Crispin's day speech. "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers..." Beautiful.

Justin Woods | August 15, 2008

Lori Lancaster | August 15, 2008
[hidden by request]

Steve West | August 15, 2008
Ummm... Justin, is this a trick question? 'Cause it looks suspiciously like Scott's example that Amy actually answered. If so, you fooled me again.

Megan Baxter | August 15, 2008
Lori's looks like Anne of Green Gables.

Megan Baxter | August 15, 2008
http://wordle.net/gallery/wrdl/124141/Megan

Justin Woods | August 15, 2008
Sorry I missed that, you are right Steve my bad!!!

Lori Lancaster | August 15, 2008
[hidden by request]

Lori Lancaster | August 15, 2008
[hidden by request]

Steve West | August 15, 2008
Wordle

Amy Austin | August 15, 2008
Is that "Through the Looking Glass", Steve?

Steve West | August 15, 2008
Specifically, "jabberwocky", yup.

Amy Austin | August 15, 2008
Yeah, it came to me later... ;-p

Scott Hardie | August 16, 2008


This is a harder one. Kris will know it. The two key words are near the lower-right.

Amy Austin | August 16, 2008
Pride & Prejudice?

(Or is it the other alliterative ___&___ Jane Austen work that I should have read at least one of but haven't? ;-D)

Scott Hardie | August 16, 2008
Steve, is your first one Charge of the Light Brigade?

Steve West | August 16, 2008
Oh yeah. My favorite Tennyson.

Scott Hardie | August 16, 2008
Nope, not Austen. (Sense & Sensibility is the other one you mean, I think.)

Amy Austin | August 16, 2008
Yeah, I already looked it up so as not to be plagued by my curiosity/faulty memory... and I suspected I was wrong when I wrote it... ;-)

Steve West | August 16, 2008

Amy Austin | August 16, 2008
LOL... I'll save it for someone else -- are you trying to make sure it's something I've read, Steve?

Steve West | August 16, 2008
Exactly :-)))

Amy Austin | August 16, 2008
>;-p

Steve West | August 16, 2008
This one's just a little harder. Wordle

Amy Austin | August 16, 2008
Should I be embarrassed? Because I don't know that one... ;-(

Steve West | August 16, 2008
Probably is hard because it's a poem that most people have heard of and even are aware of the albatross reference but I did only select my favorite excerpt.

"He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small ;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.

The Mariner, whose eye is bright,
Whose beard with age is hoar,
Is gone : and now the Wedding-Guest
Turned from the bridegroom's door."

Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"

Amy Austin | August 16, 2008
I did see Mariner and that was the only thing I could think of, but you're right... I don't know it beyond awareness of its existence and of the albatross reference -- been tooooo long!

Scott Hardie | August 16, 2008

Jackie Mason | August 17, 2008
[hidden by request]

Aaron Shurtleff | August 17, 2008
Link

Here's one! :)

Scott Hardie | August 18, 2008

Scott Hardie | August 18, 2008
Steve: Green Eggs & Ham. I'd have guessed Rime of the Ancient Mariner if I had seen it in time.

My second is The Dead by James Joyce. Still unsolved: My last two, Erik's, Aaron's.

Aaron Shurtleff | August 18, 2008
Is that Rumplestitzkin??

Denise Sawicki | August 18, 2008

Aaron Shurtleff | August 19, 2008
This would work well for songs, too, I think. Mine above is a poem, not a song, of course. Just saying! :)