Poem fractal

The bowers whereat, in dreams, I see

by Edgar Allan Poe

19 January 1809 to 7 October 1849 (~40)

Browse poets 678
In their words

“When a man of genius speaks of “the difficult” he means, simply, “the impossible.”

A characteristically sharp observation on ambition and creative limitation · Published marginal notes, 1849

More remarks (39)

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 Blake · −0.3026 − 0.7344i · 0.008 away · Compare side by side
  2. Edgar A. Guest · −0.3059 − 0.7382i · 0.012 away · Compare side by side
  3. Thomas Hood · −0.3256 − 0.7224i · 0.022 away · Compare side by side
  4. A.E.Housman · −0.2819 − 0.7143i · 0.025 away · Compare side by side
  5. Emily Dickinson · −0.2777 − 0.7374i · 0.028 away · Compare side by side
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