Poetry is used throughout “EPICAC” as a motif and a symbol helping to explore the story’s question about the difference between men and machines. Poetry stands as the antithesis of “cold” and “mechanical.” When Pat routinely halts the narrator’s advances, she commonly cites the fact that they are both mathematicians as the prevailing reason “why [they] could never be happily married” (Paragraph 10). The narrator tries so often with Pat that eventually, “one night, she didn’t even look up from her work when [he] said it” (Paragraph 12).

Poetry and romance are linked in the story. Pat wants a man who will sweep her off her feet, but she is just stuck working on EPICAC around men who are soldiers, scientists, and/or mathematicians. She wants something more exciting and fulfilling—Pat wants deep, human connection. Poetry is the key to her heart because it stands in stark contrast to the science/mechanical world. The narrator is told he’s not poetic and he lamentingly describes himself that way to EPICAC in Paragraph 22. This moment serves as another example of poetry as the antithesis of “cold,” because up until this point, the narrator has used Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary to give EPICAC definitions of human concepts like “love.