couplet-checker.py

#!/usr/bin/python
#
# Count and compare the syllables for each set of two lines in the provided file. Bombs out with numbers and mispelt words.
# Uses Python 2.7 and nltk (pip install nltk)

import sys
from nltk.corpus import cmudict

d = cmudict.dict()
def syllable_count(word):
    word = word.strip(",.")
    return [len(list(y for y in x if y[-1].isdigit())) for x in d[word.lower()]]

def count_in_line(line):
    return sum([item for sublist in map(syllable_count, line.split()) for item in sublist])

def describe_couplet(couplet):
    print "".join(couplet)
    print "==First line: {0} syllables; Second line: {1} syllables==\n".format(count_in_line(couplet[0]), count_in_line(couplet[1]))

lines = [] 
with open('couplets', 'r') as f:
    lines = f.readlines()

couplets = [lines[i:i+2] for i in xrange(0, len(lines), 2)] #split into list of couplets (as two-element lists)
map(describe_couplet, couplets)
describe_couplet(couplets[0])