Poem fractal

Sea-Fever

by John Masefield

1 June 1878 to 12 May 1967 (~89)

Browse poets 678
In their words

“The world is round, and the place which may seem like the end may also be the beginning.”

A hopeful reflection on endings as possible beginnings · Prose writing, commonly attributed

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. Caroline Elizabeth Sheridan · −0.2099 + 1.1847i · 0.038 away · Compare side by side
  2. Banjo Paterson · −0.1405 + 1.1587i · 0.039 away · Compare side by side
  3. Amelia Alderson Opie · −0.1784 + 1.1073i · 0.055 away · Compare side by side
  4. Edgar Lee Masters · −0.1799 + 1.0981i · 0.064 away · Compare side by side
  5. Rudyard Kipling · −0.1497 + 1.1015i · 0.068 away · Compare side by side
—
—
0:00
0:00
Track 1
Skip to main content