Poem fractal

Seeking Forgetfulness

by William Bell Scott

12 September 1811 to 22 November 1890 (~79)

Browse poets 678
In their words

“We become more self-centred as we get old, and our environment, the scenery of life, becomes more important.”

Observing how ageing can deepen inwardness and attachment to surroundings · Autobiographical Notes, Vol. II, Chapter XIX

More remarks (39)

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. John Farmer · −0.4144 + 0.0813i · 0.016 away · Compare side by side
  2. Thomas Hood · −0.4140 + 0.0501i · 0.016 away · Compare side by side
  3. Robert Nichols · −0.3942 + 0.0757i · 0.023 away · Compare side by side
  4. Claude McKay · −0.4148 + 0.0893i · 0.024 away · Compare side by side
  5. William Wordsworth · −0.3950 + 0.0781i · 0.024 away · Compare side by side
—
—
0:00
0:00
Track 1
Skip to main content