Poem fractal

On a Hillside

by George William Russell

10 April 1867 to 17 July 1935 (~68)

Browse poets 678
In their words

“The world is a spiritual world, and we are spiritual beings.”

Affirms the spiritual dimension of both reality and human identity · 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. Edna St. Vincent Millay · −0.0165 − 0.9747i · 0.014 away · Compare side by side
  2. Christina Rossetti · −0.0481 − 0.9837i · 0.035 away · Compare side by side
  3. James Joyce · −0.0294 − 0.9231i · 0.039 away · Compare side by side
  4. Robert Jones · −0.0098 − 1.0008i · 0.041 away · Compare side by side
  5. Emily Dickinson · −0.0599 − 0.9748i · 0.041 away · Compare side by side
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