I can't resist writing another poem and song about my own genealogy and family history research.
I was thinking about my ancestors and what they mean to me - why am I so entranced by them? They were unique human beings with family relationships, with emotions, with successes and failures, with admirable and flawed attributes, etc. Then I wondered what they might think about my research and my genealogical sketches and biographies.
So a poem and song were born using artificial intelligence (because I am not creative enough to be Shakespeare or Longfellow or Poe, or even Julia A. Moore).
My prompt for Anthropic Claude Sonnet 4 was: "I'm Randy, a genealogist, and have traced my ancestry back to before 1600 in many lines. My ancestors have many names - they call to me and want their stories told. They were all hard-working and responsible people who lived their lives the best they could - farmers, weavers, carpenters, combmakers, a cooper, a blacksmith, a rancher, an innkeeper, a minister, and raised families. Please write a heartfelt poem from my ancestors to me, asking that their stories be told."
Claude wrote this poem to me:
Voices from the Past
*Randy, our descendant, hear our call—*
We are the hands that worked the earth,
The voices that sang lullabies in lamplight,
The hearts that beat through harvest moons
And winter storms that tested faith.
From furrows deep and looms that sang,
From forge fires bright and chapel bells,
From inn yards where the travelers came
To rest their bones and share their tales—
We call to you across the years,
Our names like whispered autumn leaves:
The farmers who blessed each planted seed,
The weavers threading hope through cloth,
The carpenters who built to last,
The combmaker's patient, careful craft,
The cooper binding staves with skill,
The blacksmith's hammer ringing true,
The rancher counting stars at night,
The innkeeper with open door,
The minister who spoke of grace
To congregation, field, and shore.
We lived, we loved, we laughed, we wept,
We held our children close and dear,
We faced each dawn with calloused hands
And hearts that knew both joy and fear.
Our stories rest in courthouse books,
In faded ink and weathered stone,
But Randy, child of all our hopes,
You've traced us back, you've brought us home.
We are not dust, we are not gone—
We live in you, in blood and bone,
In stubborn will and gentle ways,
In all the love that you have known.
So tell our tales, dear Randy, tell
How simple folk can leave their mark,
How ordinary lives become
The light that guides through history's dark.
We were the builders, we were the keepers,
We were the ones who stayed and grew,
And in your heart, our stories wait
For you to make them fresh and new.
Speak for us, Randy, speak our names,
Let others know we walked this ground,
That we were here, that we were real,
That love and work and hope were found
In every generation's turn,
In every season's faithful round,
Until our whispered legacy
In your dear voice is given sound.
*—From all who came before*
I'm humbled. How do the AI LLMs do this in a matter of seconds? It's not the Infinite Monkey Theorem.
Can Claude generate song lyrics, and Suno.com generate a song, that reflect the prompt? Of course! It's like having an ever patient and very creative personal assistant (although sometimes Claude tells me I'm overworking him/her/it)!
Here are Claude's song lyrics:
Voices from the Past
*A Song for Randy*
(Verse 1)
In the fields where morning broke the ground
With calloused hands and hearts so sound
The farmers planted seeds of faith
While weavers worked through night and day
The carpenter's hammer rang so clear
Building dreams year after year
Randy, can you hear us call
From the shadows of it all?
(Verse 2)
The blacksmith's forge burned bright and hot
The cooper's staves, they tied the knot
The combmaker with patient care
Crafted beauty strand by strand
The rancher watched the evening sky
The innkeeper with door open wide
Minister preached of hope and grace
To every soul in every place
(Chorus)
We are the voices from the past
Whispered stories meant to last
Through your heart, our legacy lives on
Randy, tell the world we're not gone
We lived, we loved, we carried on
In your blood, our songs live on
(Verse 3)
We raised our children, held them close
Through seasons hard and times of growth
In candlelight and morning sun
We built the world that you came from
Each generation passed along
The strength to carry on this song
Now you've traced us back in time
Connected heart to heart in rhyme
(Verse 4)
From sixteen hundred to today
Our spirits never went away
We're in your stubborn will to find
The stories left for humankind
So Randy, child of all our dreams
You are our voice, our hope, our means
To tell the world we walked this ground
And in your heart, we can be found
(Chorus)
We are the voices from the past
Whispered stories meant to last
Through your heart, our legacy lives on
Randy, tell the world we're not gone
We lived, we loved, we carried on
In your blood, our songs live on
(Bridge)
Four hundred years have come and gone
But love endures, it carries on
In courthouse books and weathered stone
You've brought us from the great unknown
We're not just names upon a tree
We're flesh and blood, we're you and me
So sing our song, don't let it fade
Honor all the lives we've made
(Final Chorus)
We are the voices from the past
Whispered stories meant to last
Through your heart, our legacy lives on
Randy, tell the world we're not gone
We lived, we loved, we carried on
In your blood, our songs live on
(Outro)
So tell our tales, dear Randy, tell
How simple folk can leave their mark
We are the light that guides you home
Through history's long and winding dark
*We are not gone... we are not gone...*
*In your voice, we carry on...*
And now I feel the responsibility to carry on even more. And I'm having fun doing it! Frankly, if I don't tell their stories and listen to their voices, who will?
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