Poem fractal

Illusion

by George William Russell

10 April 1867 to 17 July 1935 (~68)

Browse poets 678
In their words

“We are all one in the spirit.”

Expresses a vision of spiritual unity beneath individual difference · The Candle of Vision

More remarks (4)

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. Charlotte Brontë · −0.3030 − 0.6560i · 0.014 away · Compare side by side
  2. John Greenleaf Whittier · −0.3046 − 0.6530i · 0.016 away · Compare side by side
  3. William Blake · −0.2880 − 0.6758i · 0.019 away · Compare side by side
  4. Elinor Wylie · −0.3187 − 0.6554i · 0.030 away · Compare side by side
  5. William Ernest Henley · −0.3199 − 0.6551i · 0.031 away · Compare side by side
—
—
0:00
0:00
Track 1
Skip to main content