Poem fractal

Hymn

by Joseph Addison

1 May 1672 to 17 June 1719 (~47)

Browse poets 678
In their words

“It was said of Socrates that he brought philosophy down from heaven to inhabit among men; and I shall be ambitious to have it said of me that I have brought philosophy out of closets and libraries to dwell in clubs and coffee-houses.”

Learning claimed for ordinary social hours, not only the study · The Spectator, No. 10

More remarks (27)

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 Moore · −0.2941 − 0.3087i · 0.021 away · Compare side by side
  2. Winthrop Mackworth Praed · −0.2870 − 0.2816i · 0.024 away · Compare side by side
  3. Ralph Waldo Emerson · −0.2871 − 0.2772i · 0.028 away · Compare side by side
  4. D. H. Lawrence · −0.2579 − 0.3266i · 0.029 away · Compare side by side
  5. John Clare · −0.2532 − 0.3296i · 0.034 away · Compare side by side
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