Acrostic poems use the first letter of each line to spell out a word or phrase. They can be simple or complex, and need not rhyme. Acrostics can contain hidden messages and be used to deliver sensitive information.
One of the first forms of poetry many children learn to write involves hyphenating the topic vertically across the page and using each letter to start a new line. The result is known as an acrostic poem and can range from a very simple description of the subject to an extremely intricate long-lasting ode or epigram. Several biblical psalms are actually acrostic poems, as each line begins with the next letter of the Hebrew or Greek alphabet. American poet and writer Edgar Allan Poe once wrote an acrostic poem dedicated to a woman named Elizabeth, while British author Lewis Carroll used Alice Liddell’s full name to begin each line of the last chapter of one of Liddell’s long poems. he. An acrostic poem need not rhyme or follow a particular poetic form, but should describe or allude to the subject formed by the vertical opening letters.
A very simple acrostic poem might use the word child as the subject, for example:
King
In
Destruction
Individual lines of an acrostic poem can also describe the topic in more detail:
Trainer of fresh young minds,
Educator of tomorrow’s leaders,
A friendly face every morning,
Challenge students to reach higher,
Help each child learn new skills,
Eager to see a class pass the test,
Ready to answer everyone’s questions
This is the type of writing assignment a teacher can give students to learn how to write an acrostic poem. A job title such as “truck driver” or “cop” is written vertically first, and then the student will think of descriptive words starting with each letter. An acrostic poem can contain simply a few descriptive words, or it can become a very formal rhyming poem or free verse poem using the initial letters as a starting point. Some student writers may find it easier to start writing a descriptive line until they can use the next letter in the subject line as a new line. The challenge of an acrostic poem is finding words descriptive enough about the subject to fill all the letters.
More advanced acrostic poems may use the letters of the subject more than once. In a double acrostic each line begins and ends with the same letter as the subject. A simple double acrostic might look like this:
It creates nothing but havoc,
Stick imaginary lasagna,
Tear off the back seat.
There are examples of acrostic poems that use not only the letters of the subject at the beginning or end of each line, but also in between. An acrostic poem can also explain other familiar words associated with the subject, such as working the words nurse and patient in an acrostic poem about a doctor. Elaborate acrostic poems often contain hidden words and phrases within the text as a form of code or secret message. These hidden sentences can usually be discovered by reading the individual letters of the acrostic poem vertically. Historically, acrostics have been used to deliver sensitive messages, as censors rarely read “letters home” vertically.
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