Poem fractal

The Methodist

by Thomas Chatterton

20 November 1752 to 24 August 1770 (~18)

Browse poets 678
In their words

“But here matters are otherwise; had Rowley been a Londoner, instead of a Bristowyan, I could have lived by copying his works.”

A revealing comparison between London's literary market and Bristol's · Letter to Sarah Chatterton, 14 May 1770

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. Henry Constable · −0.0780 + 0.8146i · 0.028 away · Compare side by side
  2. Louise Imogen Guiney · −0.0666 + 0.8689i · 0.028 away · Compare side by side
  3. Nora Hopper Chesson · −0.0820 + 0.8727i · 0.031 away · Compare side by side
  4. William Sidney Walker · −0.0794 + 0.8900i · 0.048 away · Compare side by side
  5. William Cullen Bryant · −0.0304 + 0.8274i · 0.048 away · Compare side by side
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