Poem fractal

To the Spring

by Sir John Davies

16 April 1569 to 8 December 1626 (~57)

Browse poets 678
In their words

“I dare affirm that for the space of five years last past there have not been found so many malefactors worthy of death in all the six circuits of this realm as in one circuit of six shires, namely the western circuit, in England.”

Comparative observation on the relative orderliness of Ireland after recent pacification · Essay, A Discovery of the True Causes why Ireland was never entirely Subdued

More remarks (2)

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. Robert Frost · −0.0570 − 0.4457i · 0.009 away · Compare side by side
  2. Thomas Lovell Beddoes · −0.0573 − 0.4704i · 0.017 away · Compare side by side
  3. James Joyce · −0.0356 − 0.4386i · 0.023 away · Compare side by side
  4. Barnabe Googe · −0.0710 − 0.4679i · 0.023 away · Compare side by side
  5. George Eliot · −0.0806 − 0.4647i · 0.030 away · Compare side by side
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