Both poetry and mathematics exhibit and explore patterns. Birken and
Coon's research examines how the study of fractal patterns by the
mathematical community has stimulated a parallel interest among poets.

The influence of a major scientific advance on aesthetic media -- from
the visual arts, to music, to poetry -- is not unusual. For example, the
invention of the telescope resulted in a new understanding of the
planets, stars, and infinity that influenced how poets perceived and
described their universe. More recently, artists, musicians, and writers
have been drawn to the vivid fractal images produced by computers to
illustrate complex mathematical phenomena. Books such as James Gleick's
Chaos, have also made the mathematical ideas associated with chaos
theory and fractal patterning accessible to a wide audience. In this
presentation, Birken and Coon will focus on the influence of fractals on
poetic subject matter and form as well as literary analysis.

Many contemporary poets have explored the self-similarity and iterating
qualities of fractals. For these writers, mathematical ideas such as
scale, dimension, uncertainty, and chaotic behavior play a critical role
in poetic language and composition. Just as mathematicians and computer
scientists explore landscapes, weather, plants, and the human body
seeking fractal designs, contemporary literary critics are also
analyzing poetry as diverse as Vergil's Aeneid and the work of Wallace
Stevens, looking for evidence of fractals.

In addition to providing examples of the ways in which fractals have
influenced poetry, Birken and Coon will explain how they use fractals to
expand students' knowledge and understanding of both poetry and
mathematics in the upper division course Analogy, Mathematics, and
Poetry they teach at Rochester Institute of Technology. Finally, they
will share ways in which the exploration of fractals and poetry can be
incorporated into mathematics courses at various levels.