To get a good poem from an AI, tell it who the poem is for and give it three or four real details about them: a place you went together, a habit, something they always say. Say the occasion, how long it should be, and whether it should rhyme. Then ban the stock phrases, ask for the poem only, and read it aloud before you use it. A short poem with one true detail beats a long one full of "shining stars" and "hearts of gold".
An AI poem writer is good at the parts people get stuck on: finding a rhyme, keeping a rhythm, getting started. What it cannot do is know the person. That part has to come from you. Below: what to put in the prompt, how to avoid greeting-card clichés, examples, and how to edit.
Why AI poems sound like greeting cards
Ask any AI for "a birthday poem for my mum" and it has almost nothing to work with, so it reaches for the most common birthday-poem words: love, heart, special, another year, smile, always there. The result rhymes and scans and could be for anyone's mum. That is the greeting-card sound.
The fix is not a better model. It is better material. A poem feels personal because of details that could only belong to one person, and you are the only one who has them.
What to tell it
- Who it is for, and who they are to you. "My dad, who is turning seventy" or "my best friend from school".
- The occasion. Birthday, wedding, retirement, anniversary, a new baby, a thank-you, a card for no reason.
- Three or four real details. A place, an object, a habit, a phrase. "He still calls the fridge the ice-box. He grows tomatoes that never ripen. He drove me to every swimming lesson."
- Length. For a card, four to eight lines. For reading aloud at an event, twelve to twenty.
- Rhyme or not. Rhyme suits cards, children and funny poems. Free verse often suits serious ones, because a forced rhyme can make a sad line sound silly.
- Tone. Warm, funny, gentle, dry, a bit of both.
- What to leave out. "No 'heart of gold', no 'shining star', no 'another year older', no 'always there for me'."
- "Only the poem." No title unless you want one, no explanation after it.
A prompt you can adapt:
"Write a [length] poem for [who they are to me] for [occasion]. Use these details: [three or four]. [Rhyming / not rhyming], [tone]. Plain words, the way I'd talk. No clichés like 'heart of gold' or 'shining star', and no line that could be about anyone. Only the poem."
Examples
These are shapes to follow, written to show the difference a detail makes. Yours should use your own details.
A birthday card, rhyming
The generic version:
Another year has come around,
your heart's the kindest to be found.
With details (he grows tomatoes that never ripen, he calls the fridge the ice-box):
Seventy summers, Dad, and still
the tomatoes sulk on the windowsill.
Here's to the ice-box, the garden, and you:
may this be the year one finally turns red.
The last line breaks the rhyme on purpose, which makes it funny. Rhyme is a tool, not a rule.
A card for a friend, not rhyming
You kept the ticket from the bus we missed.
Twelve years later, it's still on your fridge.
Happy birthday to the only person
who thinks missing a bus is worth remembering.
Four lines, one real object, no rhyme. It works because the friend will recognise the ticket.
Poems for different occasions
- Birthdays. Something they love, something they always do. A small joke works well. Birthday messages covers the card text around it.
- Weddings. Keep it short if you are reading it aloud: under a minute. Use a detail about the couple together, not a list of their virtues. If it is part of a speech, see how to write a wedding speech.
- Anniversaries. One memory from early on and one from now. The distance between them is the poem.
- Retirement. The job's small rituals: the mug, the early train, the phrase they used in every meeting.
- A new baby. Write to the parents, not about babies in general. What will the child inherit from them?
- Grief and sympathy. Be careful. Keep it very short, do not rhyme unless you are sure, and never tell someone how they should feel. Many people prefer a plain message to a poem at a time like this.
How to edit an AI poem
Read it aloud. Your ear will catch most problems before your eye does.
- Forced rhymes. If a line is only there to rhyme ("a love so true, forever new"), cut it or rewrite it without the rhyme.
- Wrong rhythm. If you stumble reading a line, the beats are off. Ask for "the same line with a steady rhythm", or move a word.
- Abstract words. Love, joy, special, cherish, treasure. Replace each with a thing you can see.
- Lines that could be about anyone. Test each line: could it go in a card for someone else? If yes, it is the weakest line.
- Too long. Most card poems improve when cut by a third.
Ask for changes line by line rather than starting over: "keep the first four lines, rewrite the last two so they mention the allotment".
Doing it with Hemmingway
Hemmingway is built for short pieces that should sound like a person wrote them, and poems for cards and occasions are one of them. Its model, Hemmingway-1, gives you the poem itself, one version, and keeps to the length you asked for. In our own Human-Likeness test, where a judge picks which of two texts a person wrote, it came first of the models we compared. If you keep the person in People, with who they are to you, it starts from that.
Try HemmingwayDownload the app
It writes best in English, and it can get a fact wrong while sounding sure: check names, dates and anything you did not tell it. For a long, ambitious poem or a collection, a large story model may do better; our own story test, StoryBench, puts Fable 5 Max and GLM-5.3 above Hemmingway-1.
Common questions
Can AI write a good poem?
It can write a technically neat poem quickly, with rhyme and rhythm. Whether it is good depends mostly on what you give it: with real details about a person it can write something that feels personal, and without them it writes something generic. Always read it aloud and edit.
How do I make an AI poem more personal?
Give it three or four specific details only you would know: a place, a habit, an object, something the person always says. Tell it to use them and to avoid lines that could be about anyone. Then cut any line that still sounds like it came from a card shop.
Should a poem for a card rhyme?
Not necessarily. Rhyme suits funny poems, children's cards and light occasions. For something serious or tender, free verse often works better, because a forced rhyme can make a sincere line sound silly.
How long should a poem in a card be?
Four to eight lines is usually right. It has to fit on the card and be read in a few seconds. If you want to say more, put a short poem in the card and a longer message in a letter.
Is it cheating to use AI to write a poem for someone?
Most people care that the words are true and chosen for them, not who found the rhyme. If you give the AI the real details and edit the poem until it sounds like you, it is your poem. If you would feel awkward being asked, write the last line yourself.