Poem fractal

On a Girdle

by Edmund Waller

3 March 1606 to 21 October 1687 (~81)

Browse poets 678
In their words

“The King governs by Law. Let us look back to the evils we had, in order to prevent more. We give public money, and must see that it goes to public use.”

Urging constitutional restraint and fiscal responsibility · Speech in Parliament (1675)

More remarks (1)

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. William Makepeace Thackeray · −0.6264 − 0.4600i · 0.005 away · Compare side by side
  2. Thomas Hood · −0.6427 − 0.4626i · 0.011 away · Compare side by side
  3. Bliss Carman · −0.6272 − 0.4723i · 0.012 away · Compare side by side
  4. John Townsend Trowbridge · −0.6143 − 0.4461i · 0.023 away · Compare side by side
  5. Samuel Rogers · −0.6102 − 0.4422i · 0.028 away · Compare side by side
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