Poem fractal

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by D. H. Lawrence

11 September 1885 to 2 March 1930 (~45)

Browse poets 678
In their words

“That my known self will never be more than a little clearing in the forest.”

Imagining conscious identity as only a small illuminated part of the whole self · Critical study, Studies in Classic American Literature

More remarks (51)

Drawing the boundary…

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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. Dante Alighieri · 0.8855 + 0.2266i · 0.077 away · Compare side by side
  2. Hildegard of Bingen · 1.0457 + 0.1657i · 0.095 away · Compare side by side
  3. Pierre de Ronsard · 0.9194 + 0.0638i · 0.131 away · Compare side by side
  4. Raymond Garfield Dandridge · 0.8351 + 0.1231i · 0.136 away · Compare side by side
  5. Giacomo Leopardi · 0.9501 + 0.3433i · 0.153 away · Compare side by side
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