Poem fractal

A White Blossom

by D. H. Lawrence

11 September 1885 to 2 March 1930 (~45)

Browse poets 678
In their words

“One's action ought to come out of an achieved stillness: not to be a mere rushing on.”

Linking meaningful action with inward composure · Essay

More remarks (51)

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. Thomas Campbell · 0.0111 + 1.0975i · 0.042 away · Compare side by side
  2. Edgar Lee Masters · −0.0500 + 1.1478i · 0.054 away · Compare side by side
  3. Dylan Thomas · −0.0579 + 1.1305i · 0.061 away · Compare side by side
  4. Richard · −0.0586 + 1.1739i · 0.071 away · Compare side by side
  5. Thomas Babington Macaulay · 0.0044 + 1.0617i · 0.077 away · Compare side by side
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