Poem fractal

The Shrine of Shrines

by Cale Young Rice

7 December 1872 to 24 January 1943 (~71)

Browse poets 678
In their words

“In truth the solution for us lies in a thorough absorption of all great art values, and in a maturer and less restless living of our poetic life generally.”

Advocating mature engagement with the enduring values of art · Preface, Trails Sunward (1917)

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. A. A. Milne · −0.2045 + 0.4755i · 0.008 away · Compare side by side
  2. John Donne · −0.2240 + 0.4636i · 0.015 away · Compare side by side
  3. Marjorie L. C. Pickthall · −0.2268 + 0.4823i · 0.016 away · Compare side by side
  4. John Donne · −0.2364 + 0.4534i · 0.032 away · Compare side by side
  5. D. H. Lawrence · −0.1711 + 0.4755i · 0.042 away · Compare side by side
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