Poem fractal

Seal up her Eyes, O sleep

by William Cartwright

1 September 1611 to 29 November 1643 (~32)

Browse poets 678
In their words

“For this assertion was Dr Featley brought upon his knees before Wm. Laud A-Bp of Canterbury.”

A wry marginal jab at a fellow divine, preserved by Aubrey · Marginal note in his copy of Featley's Handmayd to Devotion, reported by Aubrey

More remarks (1)

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. Thomas Chatterton · −0.1899 + 0.0875i · 0.009 away · Compare side by side
  2. Ella Wheeler Wilcox · −0.1944 + 0.0868i · 0.010 away · Compare side by side
  3. Allan Cunningham · −0.2099 + 0.0911i · 0.019 away · Compare side by side
  4. Bliss Carman · −0.1849 + 0.1147i · 0.020 away · Compare side by side
  5. Richard · −0.1703 + 0.0867i · 0.023 away · Compare side by side
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