Poem fractal

The Princess

by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson

8 December 1832 to 26 April 1910 (~78)

Browse poets 678
In their words

“Nature is a temple where the spirit finds its true rest and renewal.”

Original: Naturen er et tempel hvor ånden finner sin sanne hvile og fornyelse. — Expresses the spiritual solace and restorative power of the natural world · Travel notes (Norwegian)

More remarks (53)

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 Canton · −0.7396 − 0.5670i · 0.025 away · Compare side by side
  2. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. · −0.7856 − 0.6063i · 0.044 away · Compare side by side
  3. John Keats · −0.7154 − 0.6513i · 0.066 away · Compare side by side
  4. Robert Herrick · −0.7095 − 0.6494i · 0.067 away · Compare side by side
  5. Thomas Hood · −0.8017 − 0.6254i · 0.067 away · Compare side by side
—
—
0:00
0:00
Track 1
Skip to main content