Poem fractal

The Dying Warrior

by Achsa White Sprague

17 November 1827 to 6 July 1862 (~35)

Browse poets 678
In their words

“I have no desire to live merely for the sake of living, but I do desire to live to do good, to be useful to my fellow beings.”

Expressing a deep sense of purpose and commitment to serving others · Autobiographical notes / diary

More remarks (1)

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. Alfred Austin · −0.5327 − 0.3653i · 0.020 away · Compare side by side
  2. Edward Coote Pinkney · −0.4935 − 0.3582i · 0.047 away · Compare side by side
  3. Robert Williams Buchanan · −0.5070 − 0.3097i · 0.048 away · Compare side by side
  4. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · −0.4993 − 0.3767i · 0.050 away · Compare side by side
  5. Richard · −0.4911 − 0.3654i · 0.051 away · Compare side by side
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