Poem fractal

Among the worst of men that ever lived

by Henry David Thoreau

12 July 1817 to 6 May 1862 (~45)

Browse poets 678
In their words

“Goodness is the only investment that never fails.”

Presenting moral character as a lasting form of wealth · Walden

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. G. K. Chesterton · −0.0103 + 0.0877i · 0.003 away · Compare side by side
  2. William Watson · 0.0077 + 0.0818i · 0.017 away · Compare side by side
  3. Edwin Markham · −0.0150 + 0.1096i · 0.022 away · Compare side by side
  4. A. A. Milne · −0.0370 + 0.0730i · 0.034 away · Compare side by side
  5. Joaquin Miller · −0.0085 + 0.0547i · 0.034 away · Compare side by side
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