Poem fractal

An Autumn Picture

by Alfred Austin

30 May 1835 to 2 June 1913 (~78)

Browse poets 678
In their words

“Tears are often the telescope by which men see far into heaven.”

Presenting sorrow as a way of deepening spiritual perception · Prose writings / 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. John Crowe Ransom · −0.3458 + 0.7173i · 0.017 away · Compare side by side
  2. Charlotte Smith · −0.3088 + 0.7325i · 0.024 away · Compare side by side
  3. Edna St. Vincent Millay · −0.3063 + 0.7223i · 0.027 away · Compare side by side
  4. Leigh Hunt · −0.3034 + 0.7354i · 0.030 away · Compare side by side
  5. Joseph Blanco White · −0.3684 + 0.7413i · 0.038 away · Compare side by side
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