Poem fractal

To Autumn

by John Keats

31 October 1795 to 23 February 1821 (~26)

Browse poets 678
In their words

“Can it be that even the greatest Philosopher ever arrived at his goal without putting aside numerous objections?”

Questioning whether pure reason alone can reach truth · Letter to Benjamin Bailey, 22 November 1817

More remarks (69)

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. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · −0.5897 + 0.5365i · 0.020 away · Compare side by side
  2. Lord Byron · −0.6127 + 0.4823i · 0.041 away · Compare side by side
  3. Barry Cornwall · −0.5428 + 0.5305i · 0.061 away · Compare side by side
  4. Edgar Lee Masters · −0.6437 + 0.5799i · 0.070 away · Compare side by side
  5. Jasper Mayne · −0.5840 + 0.4505i · 0.075 away · Compare side by side
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