Poem fractal

Nocturne

by Arthur Symons

28 February 1865 to 22 January 1945 (~80)

Browse poets 678
In their words

“The ideal of lyrical poetry is to be this passive, flawless medium for the deeper consciousness of things, the mysterious voice of that mystery which lies about us.”

His own credo for what lyric poetry should aspire to be · Critical essay on Verlaine's lyrics

More remarks (31)

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. Arthur O'Shaughnessy · −0.0911 − 0.1006i · 0.005 away · Compare side by side
  2. John Fletcher · −0.1025 − 0.0995i · 0.011 away · Compare side by side
  3. Dylan Thomas · −0.1065 − 0.1088i · 0.019 away · Compare side by side
  4. Andrew Marvell · −0.1072 − 0.1158i · 0.025 away · Compare side by side
  5. John Drinkwater · −0.1131 − 0.1122i · 0.026 away · Compare side by side
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