Poem fractal

The Well of St. Keyne

by Robert Southey

12 August 1774 to 21 March 1843 (~69)

Browse poets 678
In their words

“How unendurable would life be if it were not for the belief that we shall meet again in a better state of existence.”

Finding consolation for separation and loss in the hope of reunion after death · Letter to Neville White, 8 November 1814

More remarks (35)

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. Thomas Hood · −0.4022 − 0.3707i · 0.007 away · Compare side by side
  2. James Hogg · −0.3910 − 0.3590i · 0.013 away · Compare side by side
  3. Daniel Webster Davis · −0.4174 − 0.3763i · 0.023 away · Compare side by side
  4. Richard · −0.3824 − 0.3952i · 0.027 away · Compare side by side
  5. Dylan Thomas · −0.4265 − 0.3783i · 0.032 away · Compare side by side
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