Poem fractal

Side by side

Random

0.034 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.

Latest Face

by Philip Arthur Larkin

0.1631 − 0.4897i

Drawing the boundary…

Sally in our Alley

by Henry Carey

0.1403 − 0.5149i

Drawing the boundary…

The poems

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

Latest Face

by Philip Arthur Larkin

Latest face, so effortless 
Your great arrival at my eyes,
No one standing near could guess 
Your beauty had no home till then, 
Precious vagrant, recognise 
My look, and do not turn again.

Admirer and admired embrace 
On a useless level, where 
I contain your current grace,
You my judgment; yet to move 
Into real untidy air 
Brings no lasting attribute—
Bargains, suffering, and love,
Not this always-planned salute.

Lies grow dark around us will 
The statue of your beauty walk?
Must I wade behind it, till 
Something's found — or is not found — 
Far too late for turning back? 
Or, if I will not shift my ground,
Is your power actual — can 
Denial of you duck and run,
Stay out of sight and double round,
Leap from the sun with mask and brand 
And murder and not understand?

Sally in our Alley

by Henry Carey

Of all the girls that are so smart
There's none like pretty Sally;
She is the darling of my heart,
And she lives in our alley.
There is no lady in the land
Is half so sweet as Sally;
She is the darling of my heart,
And she lives in our alley.

Her father he makes cabbage-nets,
And through the streets does cry 'em;
Her mother she sells laces long
To such as please to buy 'em:
But sure such folks could ne'er beget
So sweet a girl as Sally!
She is the darling of my heart,
And she lives in our alley.

When she is by, I leave my work,
I love her so sincerely;
My master comes like any Turk,
And bangs me most severely:
But let him bang his bellyful,
I'll bear it all for Sally;
She is the darling of my heart,
And she lives in our alley.

Of all the days that's in the week
I dearly love but one day—
And that's the day that comes betwixt
A Saturday and Monday;
For then I'm drest all in my best
To walk abroad with Sally;
She is the darling of my heart,
And she lives in our alley.

My master carries me to church,
And often am I blamèd
Because I leave him in the lurch
As soon as text is namèd;
I leave the church in sermon-time
And slink away to Sally;
She is the darling of my heart,
And she lives in our alley.

When Christmas comes about again,
O, then I shall have money;
I'll hoard it up, and box it all,
I'll give it to my honey:
I would it were ten thousand pound,
I'd give it all to Sally;
She is the darling of my heart,
And she lives in our alley.

My master and the neighbours all,
Make game of me and Sally,
And, but for her, I'd better be
A slave and row a galley;
But when my seven long years are out,
O, then I'll marry Sally;
O, then we'll wed, and then we'll bed—
But not in our alley!

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