Poem fractal

Eureka

by J.G. Holland

24 July 1819 to 12 October 1881 (~62)

Browse poets 678
In their words

“Calmness is the cradle of power.”

Linking composure with inner strength and effective action · Prose writing

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. John Keats · −0.3031 − 0.6974i · 0.003 away · Compare side by side
  2. Leslie Pinckney Hill · −0.3159 − 0.6917i · 0.016 away · Compare side by side
  3. William Blake · −0.2880 − 0.6758i · 0.024 away · Compare side by side
  4. A.E.Housman · −0.2819 − 0.7143i · 0.025 away · Compare side by side
  5. Emily Dickinson · −0.3248 − 0.7064i · 0.026 away · Compare side by side
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