Romantic Poetics and the Limits of AI: Emotion, Affect, and the Algorithm

This paper investigates the enduring affective force of Romantic lyricism in an age increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence and algorithmically generated verse. Focusing on the works of Romantic poets such as Wordsworth, Keats, and Byron—alongside contemporary poets like Ocean Vuong, Claudia Rankine, and Tracy K. Smith—and drawing on critical frameworks from affect theory, posthumanism, and media archaeology, this study examines the intersection of embodied, historically situated emotional expression and the predictive operations of large language models. Through close textual analysis and comparative readings—including examples of AI-generated poetry—the paper demonstrates how Romantic and contemporary poetics foreground emotional singularity, linguistic disruption, and subjective intensity, elements that resist computational reproduction. Engaging with theorists such as Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault, and N. Katherine Hayles, the argument interrogates the philosophical and aesthetic implications of machinic authorship, particularly the transformation of human emotion into data. Ultimately, the study affirms lyric poetry as a vital cultural and philosophical counterpoint to the automation of language, creativity, and affect, contributing to broader debates in literary criticism and digital poetics regarding authorship, authenticity, and the future of human expression.