dalle-mini/dalle-mini · The poem "Invictus" by William Henley - illustrated with 4 different approaches

I tried four approaches to feeding the lines of this classic poem to Dall-E mini.

Approach 1: input the lines, one-by-one as they are written on Poetry Foundation's website.
This led to some images hitting the right tone, but most of them taking the concepts too literally and producing a range of funny or alarming images. ‼️(bloody head warning)

Approach 2: input the poem stanza by stanza. Whole strings of text provided a lot of input.
I felt this started strong but for whatever reason the second and third stanzas yielded game screenshot mashups of some kind.

Approach 3: input the lines of the poem at my discretion, making judgements on where to cut the text for each input. Roughly each stanza is divided in half so I had it produce 8 images for this.

Approach 4: input the whole damn thing, copy/paste style and press Go!
Again, lots of game screens sauntered in. But the black and white images that looks like copper engraving prints are pretty cool :)

As there are 9 images for each input, I invite you to choose your personal favorite of each set for each of the respective approaches. ENJOY :)

📖 For reference, the original poem:

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.

📤 RESULTS↓↓↓

------------------APPROACH ①: line by line------------------
Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate,

I am the captain of my soul.