Thule
This is no new battle —
immense though it be.
This is the battle of always —
common to men as in things.
And that land,
that beautiful place,
receding, receding so far away;
that is no new land —
dream though it be.
That is the land of never.
Poem fractal
0.024 apart. A smaller distance means the lines are built more alike.
This number is read from the build of the lines. The bright edge is that number, carried outward until the pattern repeats.
−0.2930 − 0.6738i
Drawing the boundary…
by J.G. Holland
−0.3002 − 0.6966i
Drawing the boundary…
Each poem scrolls on its own, so the two texts stay beside each other.
This is no new battle —
immense though it be.
This is the battle of always —
common to men as in things.
And that land,
that beautiful place,
receding, receding so far away;
that is no new land —
dream though it be.
That is the land of never.
by J.G. Holland
Whom I crown with love is royal;
Matters not her blood or birth;
She is queen, and I am loyal
To the noblest of the earth.
Neither place, nor wealth, nor title.
Lacks the man my friendship owns;
His distinction, true and vital,
Shines supreme o'er crowns and thrones.
Where true love bestows its sweetness,
Where true friendship lays its hand,
Dwells all greatness. all completeness,
All the wealth of every land.
Man is greater than condition,
And where man himself bestows,
He begets, and gives position
To the gentlest that he knows.
Neither miracle nor fable
Is the water changed to wine;
Lords and ladies at my table
Prove Love's simplest fare divine.
And if these accept my duty,
If the loved my homage own,
I have won all worth and beauty;
I have found the magic stone.
A fractal is a shape that keeps its pattern when you look closer. Coastlines, trees, shells, and weather do this. The large form and the small form are the same kind of thing. A poem can be drawn that way. The shape of the whole comes from the shape of the lines.
Primunia is the name for the source of that order: the pattern under the pattern, already there in a tree, a shell, and a verse.
The number under the picture is the poem constant. It is read from the build of the lines: their length, how uneven they are, the size of the stanzas, the share of vowels, and the way the lines end. A new word moves the number when it changes that build. The same poem always gives the same number.
Drawn on its own, that number sits in a quiet part of the plane, and most poems would look like the same soft disk. So the number is carried outward along its own direction until it meets the edge of the Mandelbrot set, where the shape turns sharp. The picture is the Julia set of that meeting place.
Each point on the canvas is folded again and again by one small rule. Points that stay near the rule form the dark interior. Points that rush away become the coloured bands. The hue comes from the poem constant, and the brightest bands turn toward gold. Change the length of a line, the stanza, or the vowel share, and both the number and the picture move.
Branching draws the poem as a tree. Each turn follows a line, and every smaller branch repeats that pattern. A longer line reaches farther. The letters at the start of a line bend the next turn. A higher share of vowels opens the branches wider.
The trunk takes its colour from the poem constant and warms toward gold at the tips. When the poem has more than one stanza, gold forks leave the trunk. Each fork is a stanza beyond the first, up to three. The tree divides where the poem divides. One stanza remains a single trunk.
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