Poem fractal

Song of Man

by Kahlil Gibran

6 January 1883 to 10 April 1931 (~48)

Browse poets 678
In their words

“Keep me from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh, and the greatness which does not bow before children.”

Wisdom that stays human enough to weep, laugh, and stoop · Widely attested saying

More remarks (54)

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 · 0.3532 + 0.3494i · 0.031 away · Compare side by side
  2. Edward Lear · 0.3296 + 0.4214i · 0.055 away · Compare side by side
  3. Siegfried Sassoon · 0.2787 + 0.3258i · 0.064 away · Compare side by side
  4. D. H. Lawrence · 0.3367 + 0.4301i · 0.064 away · Compare side by side
  5. Sir Philip Sidney · 0.3488 + 0.3059i · 0.064 away · Compare side by side
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