Poem fractal

The Resignation

by Thomas Chatterton

20 November 1752 to 24 August 1770 (~18)

Browse poets 678
In their words

“Sculpture is an art which, by design and solid matter, imitates the palpable objects of nature.”

A compact definition of sculpture as imitation made tangible · Essay, On the Origin, Nature, and Design of Sculpture

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. Charlotte Richardson · −0.4540 − 0.6537i · 0.004 away · Compare side by side
  2. Emily Dickinson · −0.4538 − 0.6367i · 0.016 away · Compare side by side
  3. Sara Teasdale · −0.4466 − 0.6336i · 0.021 away · Compare side by side
  4. Robert Williams Buchanan · −0.4688 − 0.6702i · 0.021 away · Compare side by side
  5. Francis Ledwidge · −0.4817 − 0.6540i · 0.024 away · Compare side by side
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