Poem fractal

All Is Vanity

by Bernard Barton

31 January 1784 to 19 February 1849 (~65)

Browse poets 678
In their words

“Obstinacy and vehemency in opinion are the surest proofs of stupidity.”

Linking rigid, heated opinions to lack of intelligence · As commonly attributed (reported in Treasury of Thought)

More remarks (3)

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. Hilaire Belloc · 0.0294 − 1.0297i · 0.004 away · Compare side by side
  2. Emily Dickinson · 0.0348 − 1.0072i · 0.026 away · Compare side by side
  3. Emily Dickinson · 0.0500 − 1.0584i · 0.031 away · Compare side by side
  4. Arthur Symons · 0.0416 − 1.0016i · 0.033 away · Compare side by side
  5. A. A. Milne · 0.0028 − 1.0101i · 0.037 away · Compare side by side
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