Poem fractal

And must I needs depart then?

by Thomas Bateson

c. 1575 to March 1630 (~55)

Browse poets 678
In their words

“But whatsoever they are, yours they are, and for you only they were made. It was your good countenance that did encourage me to this; your love to music doth not only challenge it of me, but even the uttermost that music's art can afford; which if it were in me, I would most willingly offer to you.”

Acknowledging that the works were composed solely for his patron and inspired by his encouragement and love of music · Dedication to Sir William Norris, First Set of English Madrigals (1604)

More remarks (2)

Drawing the boundary…

Read the poem Another poem

A fractal is a shape that keeps its pattern when you look closer. Coastlines, trees, shells, and weather do this. A poem can be drawn the same way.

The poem’s constant is read from the build of its lines: their length, the size of the stanzas, and the share of vowels. Poems whose constants lie closer together are built more alike. The same poem always draws the same picture. Change the length of a line, the stanza, or the vowel share, and both the number and the picture move.

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.

Poems nearby in the constant

A smaller distance means the lines are built more alike.

  1. A. A. Milne · 0.0550 − 0.6718i · 0.008 away · Compare side by side
  2. Edna St. Vincent Millay · 0.0615 − 0.6902i · 0.012 away · Compare side by side
  3. Fanny Greville · 0.0432 − 0.6898i · 0.016 away · Compare side by side
  4. William Vaughn Moody · 0.0482 − 0.6599i · 0.021 away · Compare side by side
  5. Emily Dickinson · 0.0619 − 0.6587i · 0.022 away · Compare side by side
—
—
0:00
0:00
Track 1
Skip to main content