Poem fractal

The Reed

by Josephine Preston Peabody

30 May 1874 to 4 December 1922 (~48)

Browse poets 678
In their words

“One never learns by success. Success is the plateau that one rests upon to take breath and look down from upon the straight and difficult path, but one does not climb upon a plateau.”

On the necessity of struggle for genuine growth rather than resting in achievement · Diary or letter (commonly attributed)

More remarks (1)

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. Nora Hopper Chesson · 0.7966 − 0.3381i · 0.033 away · Compare side by side
  2. A. A. Milne · 0.7479 − 0.2903i · 0.041 away · Compare side by side
  3. Catherine Pozzi · 0.8162 − 0.3268i · 0.051 away · Compare side by side
  4. D. H. Lawrence · 0.7121 − 0.3053i · 0.057 away · Compare side by side
  5. Edgar A. Guest · 0.8152 − 0.3893i · 0.080 away · Compare side by side
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