Poem fractal

O vis eternitatis

by Hildegard of Bingen

c. 1098 to 17 September 1179 (~81)

Browse poets 678
In their words

“The soul is symphonic, and so is the body.”

Linking human vitality with harmony and music · Theological writing, in translation

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. D. H. Lawrence · 0.9537 + 0.1902i · 0.095 away · Compare side by side
  2. Pierre de Ronsard · 0.9194 + 0.0638i · 0.162 away · Compare side by side
  3. Dante Alighieri · 0.8855 + 0.2266i · 0.171 away · Compare side by side
  4. John Van Alstyne Weaver · 1.0914 − 0.0051i · 0.177 away · Compare side by side
  5. Giacomo Leopardi · 1.1525 + 0.3345i · 0.200 away · Compare side by side
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