Poem fractal

Rest Only in the Grave

by James Clarence Mangan

1 May 1803 to 20 June 1849 (~46)

Browse poets 678
In their words

“Quarrelling with the truth and quarrelling with the motive that dictates the utterance of the truth are two distinct things.”

Separating an unwelcome fact from the intention behind stating it · Essay, A Sixty-Drop Dose of Laudanum, Drop 22

More remarks (39)

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. John Van Alstyne Weaver · 0.2623 − 0.3092i · 0.008 away · Compare side by side
  2. Richard · 0.2406 − 0.2901i · 0.021 away · Compare side by side
  3. Thomas Hood · 0.2815 − 0.3297i · 0.036 away · Compare side by side
  4. Hart Crane · 0.2940 − 0.3192i · 0.041 away · Compare side by side
  5. Lewis Carroll · 0.2663 − 0.3472i · 0.044 away · Compare side by side
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