Poem fractal

Hymn For Humble People

by Alfred Douglas

22 October 1870 to 20 March 1945 (~75)

Browse poets 678
In their words

“My motto has always been 'Give, give, give.”

Expressing his ideal of generosity towards others · The Autobiography of Lord Alfred Douglas, 1929

More remarks (20)

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. Ralph Waldo Emerson · −0.1876 − 0.1347i · 0.014 away · Compare side by side
  2. Matthew Arnold · −0.2151 − 0.1301i · 0.014 away · Compare side by side
  3. Dylan Thomas · −0.1845 − 0.1316i · 0.016 away · Compare side by side
  4. Edgar A. Guest · −0.2107 − 0.1468i · 0.020 away · Compare side by side
  5. Edwin Arlington Robinson · −0.2088 − 0.1494i · 0.022 away · Compare side by side
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