Poem fractal

To put one brick upon another

by Philip Arthur Larkin

9 August 1922 to 2 December 1985 (~63)

Browse poets 678
In their words

“I think writing about unhappiness is probably the source of my popularity, if I have any.”

A self-deprecating reflection on the emotional territory shared by poet and readers · Interview

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. D. H. Lawrence · 0.0513 − 0.7934i · 0.003 away · Compare side by side
  2. Anne Bradstreet · 0.0501 − 0.8093i · 0.015 away · Compare side by side
  3. Emily Dickinson · 0.0648 − 0.8083i · 0.018 away · Compare side by side
  4. Richard Lovelace · 0.0468 − 0.8120i · 0.019 away · Compare side by side
  5. Emily Dickinson · 0.0364 − 0.8041i · 0.020 away · Compare side by side
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