Poem fractal

The Lark

by Charles Mackay

27 March 1814 to 24 December 1889 (~75)

Browse poets 678
In their words

“Millions of people become simultaneously impressed with one delusion, and run after it, till their attention is caught by some new folly more captivating than the first.”

Reflecting on the recurring cycles of public fascination · Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, preface

More remarks (4)

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. Arthur Hugh Clough · 0.1970 − 0.3981i · 0.016 away · Compare side by side
  2. Richard · 0.1952 − 0.4014i · 0.020 away · Compare side by side
  3. Thomas Tomkins · 0.1700 − 0.3820i · 0.024 away · Compare side by side
  4. Watcyn Wyn · 0.1653 − 0.3882i · 0.030 away · Compare side by side
  5. Christina Rossetti · 0.1565 − 0.3815i · 0.038 away · Compare side by side
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