Poem fractal

When thy beauty appears

by Thomas Parnell

11 September 1679 to 24 October 1718 (~39)

Browse poets 678
In their words

“Our defects and follies are too often unknown to us; nay, they are so far from being known to us, that they pass for demonstrations of our worth.”

Self-love turns our faults into badges of merit · The Spectator, No. 460, 18 August 1712

More remarks (8)

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. Arthur Symons · 0.3972 − 0.1889i · 0.025 away · Compare side by side
  2. William Oldys · 0.3786 − 0.2190i · 0.027 away · Compare side by side
  3. Richard · 0.3842 − 0.1641i · 0.031 away · Compare side by side
  4. James Clarence Mangan · 0.3937 − 0.1701i · 0.031 away · Compare side by side
  5. Rose Milligan · 0.4052 − 0.2101i · 0.037 away · Compare side by side
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