Poem fractal

An Invitation

by Francis Ledwidge

19 August 1887 to 31 July 1917 (~30)

Browse poets 678
In their words

“I burned many copybooks which contained fugitive pieces of my own because I thought it were better for them to die young and be happy than live to be reviled.”

A witty description of ruthless self-editing and dissatisfaction with early work · Autobiographical letter to Lewis Chase, 6 June 1917

More remarks (94)

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. Eugene Field · −0.8845 − 0.1024i · 0.056 away · Compare side by side
  2. Dylan Thomas · −0.9667 − 0.0971i · 0.078 away · Compare side by side
  3. Thomas Vautor · −0.8933 − 0.2304i · 0.081 away · Compare side by side
  4. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · −0.8643 − 0.2378i · 0.098 away · Compare side by side
  5. Hervey Allen · −0.9187 − 0.2793i · 0.128 away · Compare side by side
—
—
0:00
0:00
Track 1
Skip to main content