Poem fractal

A slant of sun on dull brown walls

by Stephen Crane

1 November 1871 to 5 June 1900 (~29)

Browse poets 678
In their words

“I have been very careful not to let any theories or pet ideas of my own creep into my work.”

Guarding against the intrusion of personal doctrine into the art · Letter, written in England (published 1900)

More remarks (27)

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. May (Julian) Sinclair · −0.6367 + 0.1832i · 0.025 away · Compare side by side
  2. Francis Ledwidge · −0.6789 + 0.1579i · 0.030 away · Compare side by side
  3. Siegfried Sassoon · −0.6799 + 0.1433i · 0.043 away · Compare side by side
  4. Christina Rossetti · −0.6822 + 0.2370i · 0.058 away · Compare side by side
  5. Emily Dickinson · −0.6937 + 0.2337i · 0.060 away · Compare side by side
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