Beautiful Word Clouds

So, we've established that I unashamedly possess a love affair with words. I think that one of God's greatest gifts to man was language. It's a living, breathing organism with its own moods, growth spurts, and life cycle. I love that I can read Milton, Faulkner, and Louise Rennison all in one day and understand exactly what is going on in all three of those vastly different styles of language because of the natural cohesion of the English system. It's delightful. So, in the spirit of language love and my own personal craftiness, I would like to introduce you to a beautiful creation that my friend Rob told me about the other day.

Blogdom, I'd like you to meet Wordle.


This is a site you may access at wordle.net. You can copy and paste text into a box or enter a URL and it will take all of the words and arrange them artistically according to how many times each is used. It's not only artistic, which I adore, this one --that's a representation of this blog--shows me where my heart is by giving me an inventory of how often I use certain words. I love this idea. As soon as I've got access to a really good printer and the time to do it, I'm going to print some of these and use them as artwork in my apartment. Don't you just love that idea? I love words used as art anyway, but I am not the most artsy gal you've ever met. I'm crafty and often creative, but I have fewer actual art skills than dog's hind leg. This way I can have the words I love surround me all the time and display an original art piece without the skills. It's the perfect way for my art of language to become actual visual art with the click of a mouse.

I commend Wordle's creators, and I hope that you are able to enjoy this tool as much as I do. Just in case you needed another view, here's one I created from the text of Milton's Paradise Lost Book 12.