Wonderful Love (#15 Acrostic-Types of poetry series)
What is acrostic poetry?
An acrostic is a form of writing where the first letter in each line can be read to form a word or series of words. Acrostics may or may not rhyme. Rhyming and meter are not a part of the acrostic form but both may be used to make it more challenging.
Structure…
The structure of the form was pretty much explained above…you spell out a word or series of words vertically and make words (or sentences) from each of those letters as in the example below or variations thereof.
Seeing
Nothing except
Oceans of
White
Double and triple acrostics are said to be early forerunners of the modern crossword puzzle.
The double acrostic below is said to have been written by Queen Victoria whom it is said was very fond of acrostics.
A city in Italy
A river in Germany
A town in the United States
A town in North America
A town in Holland
The Turkish name of Constantinople
A town in Bothnia
A city in Greece
A circle on the globe
NapleS
ElbE
WashingtoN
CincinnatI
AmsterdaM
StambouL
TorneA
LepantO
EcliptiC
Answer…Newcastle coal mines
One form of writing a double acrostic consists of clues for a sequence of words to be written in a list where the first and last letter of each of those words form other words such as in the example above.
Another form of double acrostics is shown below where you have two clue lines to the solution then you have a sequence of lines that that give you words from which you will take the first and last letter that spell out the solution.
Here you may see, despite the veil of haze,
A heavenly body with most moving ways.
A bustle that surrounds both you and me.
This is not lawful; still may sometimes be.
A priest or beast-if an odd spelling's found.
The dregs of vinegar maternal sound.
FusS
IlliciT
LamA
MotheR
The answer is Film Star.
(Author Unknown) to me anyway
Triple acrostics are similar to double acrostics except the middle letters are used to form words as well as the first and last letters as in the example below of whom I have no idea who wrote.
Left, middle and right
Give us a choice of light
1. Kind of glance which he's who's lost his heart
Bestows on her who wears the latter part.
2. Here is one with a gun.
3. This is bound to go round.
4. Simplify taste and eliminate waste.
My meaning is made plain by my saying it again.
AdoRinG
MuskEteeR
BanDagE
EconOmizE
ReiteRatioN
The answer is…amber, red or green
History…
There is no clear origin of this form of poetry but it was used by ancient religious cults to identify themselves to each other secretly and that being the case it is assumed that it was developed as a form of code. This form of writing became very popular among Greeks during the Alexandrine period. It was also popular among Latin writers of the fourth century as well as during the renaissance.
Now my poem…
Wonderful Love
Watching you smile upon waking
Overwhelming desire for your touch
Never questioning your trust
Dancing on a moonlit night
Evenings in each others arms
Remembering our first kiss
Facing each day together
Understanding each other’s needs
Longing when you are not near
Looking in each others eyes
Oaths taken one from the other hand in hand
Vows honored
Evermore
Mon Mar 06, 2006 5:37 am
ghost
Joined: 06 Nov 2005
Posts: 2828
Location: MIA
some more examples...
Hi Eire
i played with acrostics a long time ago (lol)... hope you don't mind if i post these here again?
regards
ghost
Trilogy
P is for pain
Intense and hopelessly surprising
Everlasting triangles
Timeless even after years of
Dragging on – the
Ragged cut that bleeds
Into the night, refusing
Even to start healing
Restless the heart
Openly caught and
Bound –
Engaged in an unfair and
Rather unreasonable, unredeemable
Tussle – yet ever hopeful
Why now
In the heat of the battle?
Lies the pain not deep enough
Late at night?
In the great expanse of time
Echoes, unwanted, the hurt
1978-1982 (aged 15-19, when I still went out with boys)
Anima I hope this is what you were wanting to know…if not then let me know and be a little more specific…giggle.
I thank you for your response and asking for more information...I think this is a much better explanation than what I had in the original post.
Thank you hon.
Evee
Double and triple acrostics are basically word puzzles that can be written in poetic form. Some have been written using various poetic forms such as couplets, sonnets and other forms but when all is said and done in the end they are an acrostic because that was the intent of the writer.
When writing a double acrostic the first stage (or that is what I will call it) is the clue lines.
Each clue line will give you a word.
The first and last letter of that word will then be used to spell out the answer such as in the Queen Victoria example below where each line in the top portion is a clue to a one word answer (some may be more than one word but for out discussion it is one word). From each of those words we will take the first and last letter in order and use them to spell out other words that will form the solution. In this instance the words spelled out are Newcastle Coal Mines.
You generally want to write out the clue lines so that the answer to those clues will give the letters to the solution in the same order as they are in the words of the solution. Example N E W C A S T L E.
Sometimes to make it a little more difficult people have written the clues so that the so that when you take the first and last letters they are scrambled and will need to be unscrambled to get the solution. Example W C A E S N T E L while that is a little more difficult to solve you only have to solve one side and the other side will fall into place.
A city in Italy (
N
aple
S
)
A river in Germany (
E
lb
E
)
A town in the United States (
W
ashingto
N
)
A town in North America (
C
incinnat
I
)
A town in Holland (
A
msterda
M
)
The Turkish name of Constantinople (
S
tambou
L
)
A town in Bothnia (
T
orne
A
)
A city in Greece (
L
epant
O
)
A circle on the globe (
E
clipti
C
)
Above you will see the clue lines with the clue answers in parenthesis next to each clue line.
Below you will see where I have taken the fist and last letter from each.
N S
E E
W N
C I
A M
S L
T A
L O
E C
Solution…Newcastle coal mines
That is one way of doing a double acrostic.
Another way of doing a double acrostic is to write out a hint as to the solution at the start then write the clue lines as in the example below.
Here you may see, despite the veil of haze, (this is the hint for the word
FILM
)
A heavenly body with most moving ways. (this is the hint for the word
STAR
)
A bustle that surrounds both you and me. (this is the clue for the word
F
us
S
)
This is not lawful; still may sometimes be. (this is the clue for the word
I
llici
T
)
A priest or beast-if an odd spelling's found. (this is the clue for the word
L
am
A
)
The dregs of vinegar maternal sound. (this is the clue for the word
M
othe
R
)
Once again we take our clue answers and remove all but the first and last letters to each word and come up with the solution…as seen below.
F S
I T
L A
M R
The solution is Film Star.
Now lets have a closer look at triple acrostics. HEHEHE
They are written the exact same as double acrostics with one or maybe two exceptions.
First of all you take the first letter the middle letter and the last letter of each clue answer to form the solution.
Second of all the clue answers cannot have an even number of letters and must be a minimum of 3 letters. In other words all clue answers for a triple acrostic must be at least 3 letters long and must have an odd number of letters…3 5 7 9 etc. and this is because with an even number of letters to the word you do not have a center letter.
Again I will use the example from my original post.
Left, middle and right
Give us a choice of light (these first two lines give a hint into what the solution is in this case it is stop lights)
Kind of glance which he's who's lost his heart
Bestows on her who wears the latter part. (these two lines (could be 1 or 100 lines it just depends on the writer) give the clue for the word
A
do
R
in
G
)
Here is one with a gun. (this is the clue for the word
M
usk
E
tee
R
)
This is bound to go round. (this is the clue for the word
B
an
D
ag
E
)
Simplify taste and eliminate waste. (this is the clue for the word
E
con
O
miz
E
)
My meaning is made plain by my saying it again. (this is the clue for the word
R
eite
R
atio
N
)
A R G
M E R
B D E
E O E
R R N
The solution is…amber, red or green
What makes acrostics a poetic form is that most often they are written in poetic verse. Although that is mainly the single acrostics it does occur with double and triple acrostics as well.
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