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An acrostic (from the late Greek akróstichon, from ákros, "top", and stíchos, "verse") is a poem or other writing in an alphabetic script, in which the first letter, syllable or word of each line, paragraph or other recurring feature in the text spells out another message. A form of constrained writing, an acrostic can be used as a mnemonic device to aide memory retrieval. An acrostic is a type of word puzzle, related somewhat to crossword puzzles, that uses an acrostic form. ... Image File history File links Question_book-3. ... Poetry (ancient Greek: poieo = create) is an art form in which human language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or instead of, its notional and semantic content. ... Write redirects here. ... ABCs redirects here, for the Alien Big Cats, see British big cats. ... Writing systems of the world today. ... Block quoItalic textte A paragraph is a self-contained unit of a discourse in writing dealing with a particular point or idea, or the words of an author. ... Constrained writing is a literary technique in which the writer is bound by some condition that forbids certain things or imposes a pattern. ... For other uses, see Mnemonic (disambiguation). ...

History

The word acrostic was first applied to the prophecies of the Erythraean Sibyl, which were written on leaves and arranged so that the initial letters of the leaves always formed a word.^{[citation needed]} This technique was later used to ingenious effect by Vladimir Nabokov in his story The Vane Sisters. The Erythraean Sibyl was the prophetess at Erythrae, a town in Ionia opposite Chios. ... Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (Russian: Влади́мир Влади́мирович Набо́ков, pronounced ) (April 22 [O.S. April 10] 1899, Saint Petersburg – July 2, 1977, Montreux) was a Russian-American, Academy Award nominated author. ... The Vane sisters is the second to last short story by Vladimir Nabokov, written in March of 1951; it is famous for providing one of the most extreme examples of an unreliable narrator. ...

Overview

Acrostics may simply spell out the letters of the alphabet in order; these acrostics occur in the Lamentations of Jeremiah, and in certain areas of the Psalms of the Hebrew Bible.^{[citation needed]} Two notable acrostic Psalms are the long Psalm 119, which typically is printed in subsections named after the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, each of which is featured in that section; and Psalm 145 (commonly referred to as "Ashrei"), which is recited three times a day in the Jewish services. The Book of Lamentations (Hebrew מגילת איכה) is a book of the Bible Old Testament and Jewish Tanakh. ... This entry incorporates text from Eastons Bible Dictionary, 1897, with some modernisation. ... Psalms (Tehilim תהילים, in Hebrew) is a book of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, and of the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. ... This article is about the term Hebrew Bible. For the Jewish scriptures see Tanakh. ... Note: This article contains special characters. ... Jewish services (Hebrew: תפלה, tefillah ; plural תפלות, tefillot ; Yinglish: davening) are the prayer recitations which form part of the observance of Judaism. ...

The ease of detectability of an acrostic can depend on the intention of its creator. In some cases an author may desire an acrostic to have a better chance of being perceived by an observant reader, such as the acrostic contained in the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (where the key capital letters are decorated with ornate embellishments), or as in the poem To Doctor Empiric (by Ben Jonson). Giving emphasis to, and capitalizing the key letters renders such acrostics relatively easier to discern.^{[citation needed]} However, acrostics may also be used as a form of steganography, where the author seeks to conceal the message rather than proclaim it. This might be achieved by making the key letters uniform in appearance with the surrounding text, or by aligning the words in such a way that the relationship between the key letters is less obvious.^{[citation needed]} Acrostic ciphers were popular during the Renaissance, and could employ various different methods of enciphering, such as selecting other letters than initials based on a repeating patten (equidistant letter sequences), or even concealing the message by starting at the end of the text and working backwards.^[1] It has been suggested that Poliphilo be merged into this article or section. ... For other persons of the same name, see Ben Johnson (disambiguation). ... This article is about hidden messages. ... This article is about the European Renaissance of the 14th-17th centuries. ... Bible codes, also known as Torah codes, are words, phrases and clusters of words and phrases that some people believe are meaningful and exist intentionally in coded form in the text of the Bible. ...

Examples

The Dutch national anthem (The William) is an acrostic: the first letters of its fifteen stanzas spell WiLLEM VAN NASSOV. This was one of the hereditary titles of William of Orange (William the Silent), who introduces himself in the poem to the Dutch people. William the Silent (William I) leader and icon of the Dutch revolt Het Wilhelmus ( (help· info)) (English translation: The William, viz. ... William of Orange (French: Guillaume, Dutch: Willem, German Wilhelm, Latin Guilelmus) is the name of several historical persons. ... William I (William the Silent). ...

Here is an example in English, an Edgar Allan Poe poem titled simply An Acrostic: Edgar Allan Poe (January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American poet, short story writer, playwright, editor, literary critic, essayist and one of the leaders of the American Romantic Movement. ...

Another example is from Lewis Carrol's "Through the Looking-Glass". The final chapter "A Boat, Beneath A Sunny Sky" is an acrostic of the real Alice's name: Alice Pleasance Liddell. Photograph of Lewis Carroll taken by himself, with assistance Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (January 27, 1832 – January 14, 1898), better known by the pen name Lewis Carroll, was a British author, mathematician, Anglican clergyman, logician, and amateur photographer. ... Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871) is a work of childrens literature by Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson), generally categorized as literary nonsense. ...

Here is another example where the initial letters spell out the months of the year, entitled A Calendar Acrostic:

Disputed acrostics

There are some acrostics whose authenticities are disputed. The first letter of each consecutive Hebrew name from Adam to the father of Abraham appears to form an acrostic that reads, "I will forgive my enemies, having compassion, forgiving those made from dust a second time." However, it is debatable whether this acrostic is the result of random chance or by design.

The acrostic appears to be highly structured. For example, the Hebrew word for forgiveness also means, "to lift up". Thus it may also read (and note the play on words), "I will lift up those who have risen up against me, having compassion, lifting up those (laid low in) the dust a second time."

See also

• Mesostic
• Word square
• Acronym and initialism
• Gordon Macdonald, 1st Baron Macdonald of Gwaenysgor
• O Antiphons

A mesostic is a poem or other text written such that a vertical phrase intersects lines of horizontal text. ... A word square is a kind of acrostic. ... Look up acronym, initialism, alphabetism in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Gordon Macdonald, 1st Baron Macdonald of Gwaenysgor (1885–1966) was a British politician and Newfoundlands final British governor as well as the last chairman of the Commission of Government serving from 1946 until the colony joined confederation in 1949 and became a province of Canada. ... In the Roman Catholic tradition, the O Antiphons are sung or recited at Vespers from December 17 to December 23 inclusive. ...

External links

• An unflattering gravestone acrostic poem in a Montreal cemetery
• A lengthy acrostic from the genealogy of Adam to Abraham
• Acrostic of a humorous list of "The Seven Deadly Sins of Venture Capital"
• Acrostic epitaph of Gustavus Conyngham