Poem fractal

Side by side

Random

0.026 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.

Sehnsucht

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

−0.4273 − 0.7646i

Drawing the boundary…

Caliban in the Coal Mines

by Louis Untermeyer

−0.4042 − 0.7531i

Drawing the boundary…

The poems

Each poem scrolls on its own, so the two texts stay beside each other.

Sehnsucht

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Dies wird die letzte Trän' nicht sein,
Die glühend Herz aufquillet,
Das mit unsäglich neuer Pein
Sich schmerzvermehrend stillet.

Oh! laß doch immer hier und dort
Mich ewig Liebe fühlen,
Und möcht' der Schmerz auch also fort
Durch Nerv' und Ader wühlen.

Könnt' ich doch ausgefüllt einmal
Von dir, o Ew'ger, werden —
Ach, diese lange, tiefe Qual,
Wie dauert sie auf Erden!

Caliban in the Coal Mines

by Louis Untermeyer

God, we don't like to complain,
We know that the mines are no lark,
But — there's the pools from the rain,
But — there's the cold and the dark.

God, you don't know what it is,
You, in Your well-lighted sky,
Watching a meteor whizz
Warm, with the sun always by.

God, if You had but the moon
Stuck in Your cap for a lamp,
Even You'd tire of it soon
Down in the dark and the damp…

Nothing but blackness above,
And nothing that moves but the cars—
God, in return for our love,
Fling us a handful of stars!

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