Poem fractal

They Flee From Me

by Sir Thomas Wyatt

c. 1503 to 11 October 1542 (~39)

Browse poets 678
In their words

“Never to play upon any man's unhappiness or deformity, for that is inhuman; nor on superiors, for that is saucy and undutiful; nor on holy matters, for that is irreligious.”

Setting bounds of humanity, respect and reverence for humour · On the proper limits of jesting, as commonly attributed

More remarks (3)

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. William Soutar · −0.1387 + 0.0445i · 0.009 away · Compare side by side
  2. A. A. Milne · −0.1346 + 0.0375i · 0.011 away · Compare side by side
  3. Dylan Thomas · −0.1600 + 0.0368i · 0.015 away · Compare side by side
  4. Philip James Bailey · −0.1275 + 0.0418i · 0.018 away · Compare side by side
  5. Siegfried Sassoon · −0.1125 + 0.0296i · 0.034 away · Compare side by side
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