Poem fractal

Suicide

by Thomas Chatterton

20 November 1752 to 24 August 1770 (~18)

Browse poets 678
In their words

“Reader judge not; if thou art a Christian—believe that he shall be judged by a Superior Power—to that Power alone is he now answerable.”

A grave appeal against judging another person's final fate · Last Will and Testament, 14 April 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. Ella Wheeler Wilcox · −0.1944 + 0.0868i · 0.005 away · Compare side by side
  2. William Cartwright · −0.1914 + 0.0961i · 0.009 away · Compare side by side
  3. Richard · −0.1703 + 0.0867i · 0.020 away · Compare side by side
  4. Allan Cunningham · −0.2099 + 0.0911i · 0.020 away · Compare side by side
  5. Bliss Carman · −0.1849 + 0.1147i · 0.028 away · Compare side by side
—
—
0:00
0:00
Track 1
Skip to main content