Poem fractal
0.123 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.
by Walt Whitman
0.0406 + 1.5656i
Drawing the boundary…
0.0576 + 1.6873i
Drawing the boundary…
Each poem scrolls on its own, so the two texts stay beside each other.
by Walt Whitman
As if a phantom caress’d me,
I thought I was not alone walking here by the shore;
But the one I thought was with me as now I walk by the shore, the one I loved that caress’d me,
As I lean and look through the glimmering light, that one has utterly disappear’d.
And those appear that are hateful to me and mock me.
For trewthe telleth that loue . is triacle of hevene;
May no synne be on him sene . that useth that spise,
And alle his werkes he wrougte . with loue as him liste;
And lered it Moises for the levest thing . and moste like to heuene,
And also the plante of pees . moste precious of vertues.
For hevene myghte noughte holden it · it was so hevy of hym-self,
Tyl it hadde of the erthe . yeten his fylle,
And whan it haved of this folde . flesshe and blode taken,
Was neuere leef upon lynde . lighter ther-after,
And portatyf and persant . as the poynt of a nedle,
That myghte non armure it lette . ne none heigh walles.
For-thi is love leder . of the lordes folke of hevene,
And a mene, as the maire is . bitwene the kyng and the comune;
Right so is love a ledere . and the lawe shapeth,
Upon man for his mysdedes . the merciment he taxeth.
And for to knowe it kyndely · it comseth bi myght,
And in the herte, there is the hevede . and the heigh welle.
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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