Poem fractal

Alone!

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. Robert Browning · 0.3375 + 0.0221i · 0.017 away · Compare side by side
  2. Anne Whitney · 0.3439 + 0.0269i · 0.022 away · Compare side by side
  3. Edgar Lee Masters · 0.3347 − 0.0230i · 0.029 away · Compare side by side
  4. Amy Lowell · 0.3234 + 0.0294i · 0.029 away · Compare side by side
  5. J.M. Synge · 0.3578 − 0.0180i · 0.030 away · Compare side by side
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