Poem fractal

Epitaph

by Katherine Philips

1 January 1632 to 22 June 1664 (~32)

Browse poets 678
In their words

“Happiness, I confess, is twofac'd, and one is Opinion; but that Opinion is certainly our own; for it were equally ridiculous and impossible to shape our Actions by others Opinions.”

Asserting the sovereignty of one's own judgment over external expectations · Letter to Berenice, c. 1663

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. Elizabeth Craven · −0.1807 + 0.5657i · 0.009 away · Compare side by side
  2. Frederick Tennyson · −0.1650 + 0.5584i · 0.015 away · Compare side by side
  3. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · −0.1562 + 0.5571i · 0.022 away · Compare side by side
  4. Christina Rossetti · −0.1982 + 0.5752i · 0.025 away · Compare side by side
  5. Richard · −0.1626 + 0.5335i · 0.038 away · Compare side by side
—
—
0:00
0:00
Track 1
Skip to main content