Poem fractal

To the Birds

by William Philpot

16 April 1823 to 16 April 1889 (~66)

Browse poets 678
In their words

“A large part of life is, or ought to be, spent in making up our imperfections and redeeming old mistakes.”

On the lifelong work of correcting past errors and shortcomings · Aphorism, A Pocket of Pebbles

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. Richard · 0.1242 + 0.8111i · 0.020 away · Compare side by side
  2. Rudyard Kipling · 0.1509 + 0.7737i · 0.028 away · Compare side by side
  3. William Lisle Bowles · 0.1553 + 0.7568i · 0.044 away · Compare side by side
  4. Arthur Hugh Clough · 0.1008 + 0.7584i · 0.045 away · Compare side by side
  5. Edna St. Vincent Millay · 0.1137 + 0.7485i · 0.047 away · Compare side by side
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