This poem is a list of 48 lines from Hollywood films which begin with the word love, stripped of their context, and alphabetically ordered. It is a by-product of a project I was working on training computers to categorise language for a performance at the Paris Opera earlier this year. The result, although just computer training data, was oddly poetic, and could be read as a series of snapshots or glimpses of a romantic relationship - and consequently, I used it as a reading during my wedding.
The lines were compiled from 617 films spanning over 50 years from the Cornell Movie Dialogs Corpus. Films quoted in this reading include Apocalypse Now, Jaws, Sideways, Fargo, Airplane II, Magnolia, Pretty Woman, Austin Powers, Vertigo and more - see this file for the list of films. Note that the original list of lines was 60 lines, but there were a few expletives, which were forbidden in the ceremony. The project isn't entirely purist.
The Python file to create the alphabetised movie dialogues is in python-script.py. You might find a better way to do it, but this one works (mostly).
Love a cup of tea. With lemon.
Love and happiness for ever.
Love at first sight?
Love demands it.
Love doesn't have to be right. It just has to be love.
Love gives you wings. It makes you fly. I don't even call it love. I call it Geronimo.
Love him... Yes, it is true. That's the hard part for me... I knew him better than anyone ... I knew him best.
Love holds you to me. And we are in danger, not you.
Love is different for different people.
Love is funny.
Love is just another name for sex. Love is sexy and sex is lovely -- I don't care what you call it, an android can't have it.
Love is... love is... love is...
Love it!
Love it.
Love it. Which way?
Love me oodles and oodles?
Love me.
Love me... keep me safe...
Love me?
Love that name.
Love this car! Is it new?
Love to, sir, but no can do. No spare room. Period.
Love to--
Love to.
Love to.
Love was never our problem.
Love ya, Margie.
Love ya.
Love you too.
Love you too..
Love you! ...Well, why don't we turn in?
Love you, Dil.
Love you, man.
Love you, too.
Love! You don't love anybody! Me or anybody else! You want to be loved - that's all you want!
Love! I'm made of love!
Love! What do you know about love?
Love's a killer, isn't it?
Love's the same as it always was. It's people who change.
Love, Sire!
Love, secret, and uh, sex. But not in that order, necessarily, right?
Love, you can still write to each other.
Love.
Love.
Love.
Love.
Love.
Love. Passion. Obsession, all those things you told me to wait for. Well, they've arrived.