What Kind of Acrostic Uses the First and Last Letters of Each Line to Form Words or Phrases? *

April 02, 2022 Post a Comment

If yous're a fan of steganography—the art of concealing messages in text—y'all might enjoy writing an acrostic verse form. From the abecedarian to the golden shovel, acrostic verse hijacks the poem's use of line breaks. With this form, you can embed subconscious meanings, derive inspiration, or merely have fun with the construction of poetry.

Famous acrostic poems throughout history take used the course to write beloved letters, incite political rebellions, and play with grade. In this article, we'll discuss how to write an acrostic poem yourself, with 5 unlike forms of acrostic poetry that can inspire or challenge your writing.

We'll also share some different acrostic poem examples. But first, what is an acrostic poem?

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What is an Acrostic Verse form?

If yous're familiar with the basics of poetry form, y'all know that a poem is organized in lines and stanzas, rather than sentences and paragraphs. Like whatsoever work of English language literature, a poem is read from left to right, top to bottom.

The same is true for acrostic poems. Only, in addition to being read left to right, the poem likewise contains a hidden message in the form of vertically aligned messages or words. In other words, an acrostic verse form is a verse form that uses the vertical nature of poesy to spell out a hidden give-and-take or phrase.

What is an acrostic poem? It is a poem that uses the vertical nature of poetry to spell out a hidden discussion or phrase.

This is better demonstrated in some acrostic verse form examples. Take the piece "An Acrostic" past Edgar Allan Poe—retrieved here from Poets.org.

An Acrostic

Elizabeth it is in vain you say
"Beloved not" — grand sayest it in so sweet a style:
In vain those words from thee or L.East.Fifty.
Zantippe's talents had enforced so well:
Ah! if that linguistic communication from thy heart arise,
Breath information technology less gently forth — and veil thine eyes.
Endymion, recollect, when Luna tried
To cure his dearest — was cured of all beside —
His follie — pride — and passion — for he died.

Notice that the first letter of each line also spells out the verse form's showtime give-and-take: ELIZABETH. This poem, dedicated to Poe's cousin Elizabeth Rebecca Herring, makes use of Greek mythology to hash out themes of love, beauty, and expiry.

If the poem itself is hard to sympathise, don't worry—its references are rather obscure. L.E.L. refers to the poet Letitia Elizabeth Landon, who often wrote nearly love or its absenteeism. Zantippe, more commonly spelled Xanthippe, was the married woman of Socrates and, reportedly, had a abrupt temper (though she was as well a devoted housewife).

Endymion, past contrast, was a man whom the moon (Luna) fell in honey with. Luna begged Zeus to grant Endymion eternal life, which Zeus agreed to, though he also put Endymion in eternal sleep, essentially preserving his beauty but robbing him of his life.

Here, the acrostic poem course is being used to dedicate the poem to some other person. However, there are many more creative uses of the acrostic course, which we will uncover in the following acrostic verse form examples.

Acrostic Verse form Examples: half-dozen Forms of Acrostic Poetry

Equally with any poetry form, poets accept tinkered with the acrostic poem for centuries. Here are 6 types of acrostic poetry to inspire and challenge you.

one. The Conventional Acrostic Poem

The conventional acrostic poem uses the first letter or word of each line to spell out a related word or phrase. Edgar Allan Poe gave u.s.a. one of many acrostic poem examples that follow this grade; below is another instance, from "A Gunkhole Beneath a Sunny Sky" by Lewis Carroll.

A Gunkhole Beneath a Sunny Sky

A boat below a sunny sky,
Lingering onward dreamily
In an evening of July —Children 3 that nestle near,
Eager centre and willing ear,
Pleased a uncomplicated tale to hear —Long has paled that sunny sky:
Echoes fade and memories die:
Autumn frosts have slain July.Yet she haunts me, phantomwise,
Alice moving under skies
Never seen by waking eyes.

Children even so, the tale to hear,
Eager middle and willing ear,
Lovingly shall nestle near.

In a Wonderland they lie,
Dreaming as the days get by,
Dreaming as the summers dice:

E'er drifting downwardly the stream —
Lingering in the golden gleam —
Life, what is it but a dream?

The first alphabetic character of each line spells out the proper name "ALICE Pleasance LIDDELL," the subject field of the poem. Alice also serves as the inspiration of Carroll'due south Alice in Wonderland, a piece of work whose themes and ideas tin be seen, albeit inchoate, in this verse form.

On top of the acrostic form, Carroll besides rhymes each tercet, making this poem both metrically challenging and a pleasure to read. Of course, acrostic poems can exercise more just embed names in their lines—they tin embed messages of whatsoever sort!—but the acrostic name verse form is a common theme.

2. The Double Acrostic Verse form

Following arrange, the double acrostic poem embeds a message both at the beginning and at the stop of each line. The first letter of each line spells out a word, and then does the terminal alphabetic character of each line.

Double acrostic poem examples are hard to detect, and good examples are fifty-fifty harder. Perhaps the near famous instance is the poem "Stroud" past Paul Hansford, in dedication to the town of the same proper noun in England.

Due southet among hills in the midst of 5 valleysouth,
This peaceful piffling market boondocks nosotros inhabit
Refuses (vociferously!) to exist a conformer.
Once abode of the cloth it gave its name to,
Uphill and down over again its streets atomic number 82 you.
Despite its faults it leaves us all charmed.

Despite the fun challenge of writing a double acrostic, this form is relatively rare in published poetry. Equally such, there is much room for experimentation, and yous should claiming yourself with the course!

I idea for experimentation would be a double helix poem, in which the commencement messages can be read top-to-bottom, and concluding letters can be read bottom-to-top, mirroring the directionality of DNA.

3. The Abecedarian Verse form

The abecedarian poem is a blazon of acrostic in which the starting time alphabetic character of each line runs in alphabetical social club. Naturally, most abecedarian poems are 26 lines long. Despite the challenge of following alphabetical order, a good abecedarian volition however rely on using concrete nouns and verbs at the start of each line, eschewing the easy road of manufactures, adverbs, and prepositions whenever possible.

Abecedarian definition: a blazon of acrostic in which the get-go letter of each line runs in alphabetical order.

Here'south one of many great abecedarian verse form examples, titled "abecedarian with sexual tension" by Emily Corwin.

are you lot running to someplace that
beckons you? in the wild yonder, where I

crackle, the lungs of me blooming silvery in the
dimness, riverbed gone out. should we come across so at

evening? under coxcomb and swollen,
filled with request for each other, request whether

goodness can be taught, whether this is right. and
how do you heal yourself, my dear?

I recall what you are—scab, totem,
juniper on the side of this house. do you make me

kind? would you like to reach between my doors—
lurid as a milksnake? I break every promise

made once to myself, in the concealment, night
now, and my blackberries are burnt. I put fire

on the table, the rosewood made soft and
pinkish. I long to exist among your

serenity plants, your neck unclothed, your wrist and
rhubarb, the cerise thorny vine coiling,

smoked in you—a rut that pulls, dragging anyone
toward it, toward being raptured,

unmade by your finger tips, undone my ribs,
vertebrae—scraped, used similar a

whetstone. information technology is scary, to live like this, under the
x-ray machines, everything visible in my

young chest—a threshold. enter me between a
zillion bright rooms, all at one time hushing.

The claiming, of form, is to write disarming lines using those Scrabble letters similar J, X, Q, and Z. Some more than abecedarian poem examples include "A Verse form for S." by Jessica Greenbaum, "Hummingbird Abecedarian" by Aimee Nezhukumatathil, and "A Boy Tin Wear a Dress" by John Bosworth.

4. The Mesostich

The mesostich, also known as a mesostic poem, is a type of acrostic poem in which a discussion or phrase is formed downwards the centre of the poem.

Like other acrostic forms, the mesostich can exist read like normal, and the hidden message volition often exist italicized or capitalized down the heart of the text. Some poets, like Andrew Culver, argue that a true mesotich is only accomplished when the mesostic letters are not repeated twice in the same line.

Poet John Cage popularized the mesostich grade. Hither'due south an example of the mesostich, out of John Cage's longform poem Overpopulation and Art. Cage's poem repeats the phrase "OVERPOPULATION AND Fine art" as a mesostich 20 times—one time for each letter of the phrase 'OVERPOPULATION AND Fine art."

For more fun with the form, cheque out this mesostic poem generator from the Academy of Pennsylvania.

v. The Telestich

Like the mesostich, the telestich is a relatively uncommon form of the acrostic. Telestiches form words or phrases using the concluding letters of each line.

We've already seen one instance of the telestich in the double acrostic poem, as the concluding line of that poem spelled out "STROUD." That said, telestiches are relatively uncommon in English language-language and contemporary poetry.

However, the telestich was a common tactic used by Ovid, an Ancient Roman poet. In The Metamorphoses, Ovid employs telestich lines that oftentimes refer to the content of the text itself. Showtime, let's look at i telestich he employed in the original Latin:

From Metamorphoses, Book 1, lines 406-411:

not exacta satis rudibusque simillima signis.
Quae tamen ex illis aliquo pars umida suco
et terrena fuit, versa est in corporis usum;
quod solidum est flectique nequit, mutatur in ossa;
quae modo vena fuit, sub eodem nomine mansit;
inque brevi spatio superorum numine saxa

The poem's telestich spells out the word "SOMATA," an Ancient Greek word meaning "bodies." This is relevant to the text itself, which you can see for yourself in this translation:

every bit marble statue chiseled in the crude.
The soft moist parts were changed to softer flesh,
the difficult and brittle substance into basic,
the veins retained their ancient proper noun.

The use of the telestich reinforces the corporeal nature of the text, exhibiting the kind of structural (and multilingual) wordplay that Ovid embedded in his work.

For a full translation of the text, likewise every bit the original Latin, you can find Metamorphoses here.

6. The Golden Shovel

The Aureate Shovel is a poesy form invented by Terrance Hayes. To write a golden shovel, the last word of each line should be read vertically and so that it transcribes the text of another poem (making this course a modified version of the telestich).

Terrance Hayes' poem "The Golden Shovel" is the first case of this course, which adapted the text of Gwendolyn Brooks' "We Existent Cool". Yous can run into Brooks' poem repeated through the end words of each line in Hayes' piece.

Nosotros've covered "Nosotros Real Cool" before, both in our commodity on short form poesy and our article on repetition devices. So, here'due south a different example of The Aureate Shovel. Michael Kleber-Diggs' poem "America is Loving Me to Decease" is a Aureate Shovel of the Pledge of Allegiance—and it too has a beginning-letter acrostic!

Read the verse form hither, in the Academy of American Poets.

How to Write an Acrostic Verse form: 5 Tips

In the in a higher place acrostic poem examples, poets employed a diversity of the post-obit tips.

How to Write an Acrostic Poem: Innovate Forms

Of course, spend some fourth dimension practicing the acrostic. Write a aureate shovel, a mesostich, or some groovy abecedarian poem examples. But also, feel free to experiment: the blank page is fertile basis.

For example, we were not able to find an acrostic poem that has a bulletin downwards the commencement, heart, and end letters. Nor have nosotros seen acrostics that read their message backwards, from lesser to top. Or, what if the acrostic was paired with another challenging form? Imagine a contrapuntal that'southward also an abecedarian.

Whatever y'all write, requite in to experimentation. That'south what the acrostic is for!

How to Write an Acrostic Verse form: Experiment with "Down Words"

What kinds of hidden messages can you embed? In our acrostic poem examples, poets accept embedded the messages of names, themes, ideas, and fifty-fifty political messages. What else could you use those "down words" for?

Experiment with those words, considering you might strike something new and unexplored in acrostic poetry. Perhaps the acrostic will contradict the bulletin of the verse form; perhaps you will embed references to famous quotes, slogans, or other works of fine art and literature. The acrostic is a space for yous to build references and metatextuality, so lean into this, and don't necessarily settle for the first idea you come up upwardly with.

How to Write an Acrostic Verse form: Forge a Human relationship Between Form and Language

Whatever hidden message you develop, it should accept a human relationship to the text of the poem itself. This may not be the case if you write a traditional abecedarian poem, but even then, it's best if the poem's course has something to do with the poem's bulletin.

Have fun with this, because the relationship between grade and language is the crux of acrostic poesy. I thought would exist to write an acrostic that's self-referential. For case, what if a mesostic poem was cleaved by the word "sword"? Or what if a poem'due south kickoff letters and telestich both spelled out the word "BOOKENDS?"

How to Write an Acrostic Poem: Use Natural Language

The flim-flam to writing a skillful acrostic poem is to go along the language natural and precise. Too often, a bad acrostic is plagued past bad word choice.

For the purposes of writing acrostic verse, eschew the urge to employ a thesaurus. Really. If you search for synonyms of words that begin or end with certain letters, you'll convince yourself to use words that sound unnatural or accept unlike intended usages. Try to use language organically, and just cheque the dictionary for confirmation. You'll find that the poem will menses on its own, without the utilize of grandiloquent language or narrowly-related synonyms.

How to Write an Acrostic Poem: Let the Poem Stand on Its Own

Finally, an acrostic poem should have a clear message without the hidden "down words." In other words, the acrostic should not be necessary to agreement the poem—rather, it'south similar an "easter egg" of the poem. It should refine or complicate the poem's message—information technology tin can fifty-fifty provide the poem's title—but it should non be the sole reason for the verse form'south existence.

Let the poem exist a verse form regardless of the acrostic. Structure exists to inform, raise, and challenge the significant of the poem (there's no linguistic communication without structure), but not to define the poem itself.

More Famous Acrostic Poem Examples

Looking for more acrostic poem examples to inspire your writing? Hither's a brief list of famous acrostic poems.

"Ode for a Phi Beta Kappa Occasion" by Rolfe Humphries
"Georgiana Augusta Keats" past John Keats
"Missing Glossary" past Claire Wahmanholm
"Acrostic" by Lewis Carroll
"Acrostic from Aegina" by David Mason
"La Priere De Nostre Dame" past Geoffrey Chaucer
"London" by William Blake (the tertiary stanza)
Hymns of Astræa by Sir John Davies
Darkling by Anna Rabinowitz
"Canicular Acrostic" by Anthony Kerrigan
Sleeping with the Dictionary by Harryette Mullen

Acquire How to Write an Acrostic Poem at Writers.com

Whether you're writing a simple acrostic name poem or a complex abecedarian, the courses at Writers.com volition help you master the acrostic poem. Accept a expect at our upcoming poetry classes, where you'll notice courses that help poets at any stage of their writing.

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What Kind of Acrostic Uses the First and Last Letters of Each Line to Form Words or Phrases? *