Raping a classic, and loving it

Contemporary Poetry Review recently introduced the Dylan Thomas Random Poetry Generator, a program that mashes together the common fixations and phraseology of the great Welsh poet into custom scraps of artificial poetry and randomized nonsense. Just click, and a new "poem" appears. At first I was outraged that a "journal devoted exclusively to poetry criticism," and one that regularly flaunts its laurels from celebrated academics, would even entertain the notion of allowing such bollocks to exist on their site. On the main page! The nerve. This isn't poetry, it's a mockery of the craft! They equate Thomas' work to that of typewriting monkeys that peck before the hunt. It's shameful, says I. But I confess to the propagation of about twenty of these ignoble creations. Clicking away, nearly laughing at the oddball brilliance of such randomized lines as "salmon lie impatiently / and all the barge-booted eyes kiss / while the virtuous tides burn and rave", I felt a strange mix of perversion and effortlessness, like I was raping the old Welshy with each poem "generated" by the unfeeling byte of software. I, like many before me, went gently into that good night and emerged with a smile.