Poem fractal

O, gather me the rose

by William Ernest Henley

23 August 1849 to 11 July 1903 (~54)

Browse poets 678
In their words

“What Disraeli's people have to say is not always original nor profound, but it is crisply and happily phrased and uttered, it reads well, its impression seldom fails of permanency.”

Arguing that memorable expression can outlast novelty or profundity · Essay, Disraeli

More remarks (51)

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. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · −0.2668 − 0.6990i · 0.003 away · Compare side by side
  2. Arthur Macy · −0.2644 − 0.6987i · 0.006 away · Compare side by side
  3. Mary Robinson · −0.2631 − 0.6945i · 0.009 away · Compare side by side
  4. Grace Fallow Norton · −0.2541 − 0.7021i · 0.016 away · Compare side by side
  5. Trumbull Stickney · −0.2534 − 0.7074i · 0.018 away · Compare side by side
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