Poem fractal
0.010 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.
−0.2747 + 0.2272i
Drawing the boundary…
by James Nack
−0.2845 + 0.2258i
Drawing the boundary…
Each poem scrolls on its own, so the two texts stay beside each other.
“Good-morning, good-morning!” the General said
When we met him last week on our way to the line.
Now the soldiers he smiled at are most of 'em dead,
And we're cursing his staff for incompetent swine.
“He's a cheery old card,” grunted Harry to Jack
As they slogged up to Arras with rifle and pack.
But he did for them both by his plan of attack.
by James Nack
When floods of light upon thee break,
From heav'n, a heav'n of earth to make,
And one thou needest to partake
The splendor on thee stealing;
Or when each ray of splendor dies,
And scowl upon thee gloomy skies,
And one thou need'st to sympathize
With desolated feeling;
Or when thou look'st around mankind,
Nor one among them all canst find
Who has with thine a kindred mind,
When earth to thee is drearest;
When all deny affection's balm
The fever of thy soul to calm,
Oh! then remember where I am!
Oh! think upon me, dearest!
But sure it cannot be decreed
Protection thou shouldst ever need,
Or sympathy;— thy virtues, plead
So well for thee with heaven,
Its blessings only will descend,
And earth no less will thee befriend, ——
Ah! that I might as well depend,
Upon the hope, that given
To me a thought of thine can be,
While all around thee worship thee!
But if thou him shouldst wish to see
Whose ardour is sincerest;
Whose ev'ry fondest thought is thine,—
Whose heart is bleeding at thy shrine,—
Who life would for thy sake resign,—
Oh! think upon me, dearest!
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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