The source code is public, so this isn’t a secret: the protagonist of Repeat the Ending is referred to in-code as the “Poet,” even though we always see him called “D.”:
Poet is a person.
The printed name of Poet is "the failed poet".
My MFA specialization is poetry, and it’s possible for me to get a little wonky about encountering it in media, particularly if a work is concerned with writing poetry. This isn’t something that helps while reviewing media about writing poems; nobody is looking for some kind of inside baseball treatment of craft poetry or creative practices. It’s pretty boring, I think, so I have to get myself in the right headspace so that I don’t talk everyone to sleep.
Forevermore
Stewart C. Baker
spoilers
Forevermore is about a self-serious man with a nice house and enough free time to experiment with poetry during the day. It’s a little goofy: he practices the dark arts, apparently, as implied by the plaster skull in his office. His door was once dark and ominous, but the housekeeper scrubbed it too thoroughly. And so on.
The goal is to construct a poem, and there’s a really nice interface for getting this done. A meter at the top of the screen shows the current balance between “broodiness” and “distraction.” While this isn’t a management simulation, the values do affect the poem being written. At right, a “live” draft shows the current state of the poem. There is a darkness in the wings: the protagonist’s wife is dead and gone, and there is a real danger that he will surrender–temporarily, one hopes–to despair.
I sincerely enjoyed my time with Forevermore, and found three of the possible poems/endings. I may go back and try for the other two. I applaud the author’s credible effort to approximate the famed rhythm of Poe’s “The Raven,” as it generally comes across convincingly and, when appropriate, quite humorously.
It’s possible that some audiences might consider Poe’s story too tragic to ever really embrace this light experience. I think that’s a valid response, but ultimately “The Raven” is far too well-known to be constrained by biography’s gravity. It’s very easy for me to recommend Forevermore as an enjoyable and well-constructed work. I am additionally impressed that this was completed in four hours!