Poem fractal

The Sphinx

by Ralph Waldo Emerson

25 May 1803 to 27 April 1882 (~79)

Browse poets 678
In their words

“Beauty is the mark God sets upon virtue. Every natural action is graceful.”

Connects beauty with moral harmony rather than mere appearance · Essay, Nature (1836)

More remarks (85)

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. Emily Dickinson · −0.0478 − 0.7940i · 0.013 away · Compare side by side
  2. Lizette Woodworth Reese · −0.0454 − 0.7574i · 0.028 away · Compare side by side
  3. Anthony Munday · −0.0654 − 0.7542i · 0.031 away · Compare side by side
  4. Edwin Arlington Robinson · −0.0825 − 0.7661i · 0.032 away · Compare side by side
  5. Cale Young Rice · −0.0806 − 0.8035i · 0.032 away · Compare side by side
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