Poem fractal

Caedmon's Hymn

by Caedmon

c. 600 to c. 681 (~81)

Browse poets 678
In their words

“I cannot sing; and for this reason I left the feast and went to the stable when I saw the harp coming towards me.”

Explaining Caedmon’s initial reluctance and lack of confidence as a singer · Bede, Ecclesiastical History, IV.24; translated speech

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. Richard · 0.0647 − 0.4093i · 0.013 away · Compare side by side
  2. Robert Burns · 0.0634 − 0.3954i · 0.015 away · Compare side by side
  3. Amelia Alderson Opie · 0.0585 − 0.4236i · 0.027 away · Compare side by side
  4. Violet Jacob · 0.0560 − 0.4223i · 0.028 away · Compare side by side
  5. Banjo Paterson · 0.0638 − 0.4466i · 0.045 away · Compare side by side
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