Poem fractal

The Perversion of Letters

by Sir Aubrey de Vere

28 August 1788 to 5 July 1846 (~58)

Browse poets 678
In their words

“Anything that promotes the knowledge of Wordsworth would be acceptable to me.”

Showing his deep commitment to keeping Wordsworth's poetry and thought alive for readers. · Letter to William Angus Knight, 28 August 1884

More remarks (5)

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. William Lisle Bowles · −0.4346 + 0.7514i · 0.034 away · Compare side by side
  2. Richard · −0.4446 + 0.7502i · 0.037 away · Compare side by side
  3. J.G. Holland · −0.3983 + 0.8027i · 0.038 away · Compare side by side
  4. Charles Tennyson Turner · −0.4510 + 0.8196i · 0.039 away · Compare side by side
  5. Charles Tennyson Turner · −0.4443 + 0.8250i · 0.042 away · Compare side by side
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