Poem fractal

Lilith, Lilith

by Herbert Gorman

January 1893 to 28 October 1954 (~61)

Browse poets 678
In their words

“Style is not an ornament applied to thought; it is the very shape of the mind expressing itself.”

Observing that literary style is an organic reflection of individual thought · Essays and commentary

More remarks (18)

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. Celia Thaxter · −0.3412 − 0.0818i · 0.006 away · Compare side by side
  2. John Masefield · −0.3492 − 0.0931i · 0.011 away · Compare side by side
  3. Robert Herrick · −0.3732 − 0.0916i · 0.028 away · Compare side by side
  4. Letitia Elizabeth Landon · −0.3326 − 0.1089i · 0.031 away · Compare side by side
  5. Nora Hopper Chesson · −0.3357 − 0.1109i · 0.031 away · Compare side by side
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