Poem fractal

The Sun has long been set

by William Wordsworth

7 April 1770 to 23 April 1850 (~80)

Browse poets 678
In their words

“In such a life there can be no thought; for we have no thought (save thoughts of pain) but as far as we have love and admiration.”

Connecting meaningful thought with the capacity to love and admire · Letter to Lady Beaumont, 21 May 1807

More remarks (44)

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. Robert Nichols · −0.3942 + 0.0757i · 0.003 away · Compare side by side
  2. George William Russell · −0.3830 + 0.0794i · 0.012 away · Compare side by side
  3. John Farmer · −0.4144 + 0.0813i · 0.020 away · Compare side by side
  4. Claude McKay · −0.4148 + 0.0893i · 0.023 away · Compare side by side
  5. William Bell Scott · −0.4153 + 0.0658i · 0.024 away · Compare side by side
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