Poem fractal

The Definition of Love

by Andrew Marvell

31 March 1621 to 16 August 1678 (~57)

Browse poets 678
In their words

“However I will for mine own private satisfaction forthwith draw up an answer that shall have as much of spirit and solidity in it as my ability will afford & the age we live in will indure.”

Resolving to answer criticism with both vigour and substance · Letter to Sir Edward Harley, 3 May 1673

More remarks (9)

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. Thomas Moore · −0.0448 − 0.6139i · 0.005 away · Compare side by side
  2. Alan Seeger · −0.0392 − 0.6120i · 0.011 away · Compare side by side
  3. Arthur O'Shaughnessy · −0.0684 − 0.6248i · 0.021 away · Compare side by side
  4. Joseph Seamon Cotter Sr. · −0.0687 − 0.6249i · 0.022 away · Compare side by side
  5. Percy Bysshe Shelley · −0.0263 − 0.6169i · 0.023 away · Compare side by side
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