Poem fractal

There is a tide in the affairs of men

by William Shakespeare

c. 23 April 1564 to 23 April 1616 (~52)

Browse poets 678

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. Edgar Lee Masters · 0.3347 − 0.0230i · 0.011 away · Compare side by side
  2. J.M. Synge · 0.3578 − 0.0180i · 0.022 away · Compare side by side
  3. George Sterling · 0.3105 − 0.0338i · 0.030 away · Compare side by side
  4. Nora Hopper Chesson · 0.3746 − 0.0330i · 0.034 away · Compare side by side
  5. J.G. Holland · 0.3391 + 0.0053i · 0.037 away · Compare side by side
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