Poem fractal

The Myth of Arthur

by G. K. Chesterton

29 May 1874 to 14 June 1936 (~62)

Browse poets 678
In their words

“Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another.”

Presenting education as the living continuity between generations · Prose book

More remarks (4)

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. Walter de la Mare · −0.3467 + 0.9098i · 0.023 away · Compare side by side
  2. William Ernest Henley · −0.3865 + 0.9197i · 0.027 away · Compare side by side
  3. Dylan Thomas · −0.3964 + 0.9220i · 0.036 away · Compare side by side
  4. Alexander Pope · −0.3975 + 0.9204i · 0.037 away · Compare side by side
  5. Wilfrid Wilson Gibson · −0.3170 + 0.9519i · 0.050 away · Compare side by side
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