Poem fractal

Why so pale and wan, fond lover

by Sir John Suckling

10 February 1609 to 1642 (~33)

Browse poets 678
In their words

“Among the truths which we receive, none more reasonably commands our belief than those which by all men at all times have been assented to.”

On the authority of universal consent in establishing belief · An Account of Religion by Reason

More remarks (10)

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. George O'Neil · −0.1104 − 0.7002i · 0.002 away · Compare side by side
  2. Nora Hopper Chesson · −0.1210 − 0.7104i · 0.013 away · Compare side by side
  3. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · −0.1106 − 0.6889i · 0.014 away · Compare side by side
  4. Genevieve Taggard · −0.1228 − 0.6973i · 0.014 away · Compare side by side
  5. William Corkine · −0.1255 − 0.7214i · 0.024 away · Compare side by side
—
—
0:00
0:00
Track 1
Skip to main content