Acrostic poem
Also known as acrostic
A poem in which the first letters of the lines, read downward, spell a word, a name or a message. Some acrostics hide the word in the middle or last letters instead.
- Read across
- Each line says something
- Read down
- The first letters spell a word
In practice
An acrostic poem is a poem whose lines begin with letters that, read from top to bottom, spell a word, a name or a phrase. The word is usually the poem's subject or the person it is written for, so the poem says something across each line and something else down its edge.
Acrostics are very old. Several Hebrew psalms, including Psalm 119, begin their verses with the letters of the alphabet in order. Medieval and Renaissance poets hid their own names or the names of patrons in acrostics, and Lewis Carroll ended Through the Looking-Glass (1871) with a poem that spells Alice Pleasance Liddell.
Today the acrostic is one of the first poems many children write, on their own name. It also works as a puzzle: a reader who notices the hidden word sees the poem a second time.
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Acrostic poem examples
Lewis Carroll, "A Boat Beneath a Sunny Sky": the first letters of its twenty-one lines spell ALICE PLEASANCE LIDDELL, the girl who inspired the Alice books. Edgar Allan Poe's "An Acrostic" spells ELIZABETH down its side.
A simple example on the word RAIN: "Running down the window, / All afternoon it taps, / In puddles on the street, / Nothing stays dry." Each line adds an image, and the word ties them together.
How to write an acrostic poem
Choose a short word or name and write its letters down the left side of the page. Before you fill the lines, list images and ideas connected to the word, so each line says something about it rather than just starting with the right letter.
Lines can run on into each other; they do not need to be separate sentences. Letters such as X, Q and Z are hard, so look for one of the few words that start with them (xylophone, quiet, zigzag), or change the word the poem spells. Read the poem across first: it should work even for a reader who never notices the acrostic.
Types of acrostic poems
In a standard acrostic, the first letters spell the word. In a telestich, the last letters do. In a mesostich, the letters run down the middle of the lines. A double acrostic spells words with both the first and the last letters.
An abecedarian poem is a special acrostic whose lines begin with the letters of the alphabet in order, A to Z, like Psalm 119. Poets still write abecedarians as a challenge and a way to find unexpected words.
Common questions
What is an acrostic poem?
An acrostic poem is a poem whose first letters of each line, read downward, spell a word, a name or a message, usually the poem's subject.
What is an example of an acrostic poem?
Lewis Carroll's "A Boat Beneath a Sunny Sky" spells ALICE PLEASANCE LIDDELL with the first letters of its lines.
Does an acrostic poem have to rhyme?
No. An acrostic can rhyme or not. The only rule is that the chosen letters spell the word.
What is the difference between an acrostic and an abecedarian poem?
An acrostic spells a word or name. An abecedarian poem starts its lines with the letters of the alphabet in order, from A to Z.
How many lines are in an acrostic poem?
As many as the letters in the word it spells. A poem on the word RAIN has four lines.