Poem fractal

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by Edwin Arlington Robinson

22 December 1869 to 6 April 1935 (~66)

Browse poets 678
In their words

“Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes, playing a poor hand well.”

Emphasising character and resourcefulness in difficult circumstances · Prose remark, commonly attributed

More remarks (1)

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. Thomas Hardy · −0.0804 − 0.7533i · 0.013 away · Compare side by side
  2. Anthony Munday · −0.0654 − 0.7542i · 0.021 away · Compare side by side
  3. John Donne · −0.1030 − 0.7582i · 0.022 away · Compare side by side
  4. A. A. Milne · −0.0968 − 0.7836i · 0.023 away · Compare side by side
  5. Samuel Johnson · −0.1058 − 0.7757i · 0.025 away · Compare side by side
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