"To a Friend Whose Work Has Come to Nothing" by William Butler Yeats
Bringing the past alive with generative AI.
I was listening to some thoughts from the comedic writer Brent Forrester (you know his work - The Office, The Simpsons, King of the Hill) - and he brought up this poem by William Butler Yeats, which I have never heard. Though over 100-years old, the poem is relevant and deserved not only a share of the words to be read - but a READING in video format. Today, I want to show you HOW I created this so you can do the same.
1 • written word to spoken
Tool: ElevenLabs.com
I found a voice that had a touch of an Irish-English lilt to it - that also felt appropriate to the period (early 1900s). Nothing ‘fancy’ in the creation process - I just added the poem in its entirety to ElevenLabs, used Eleven English v1 and let it do its thing. Rendered audio track was downloaded as an MP3.
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