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. An alphabet is a standardized set of letters basic written symbols each of which roughly represents a Phoneme, a Spoken language, either A writing system is a type of Symbolic system used to represent elements or statements expressible in Language. A paragraph (from the Greek paragraphos, " to write beside " or " written beside " is a self-contained unit of a discourse in A form of constrained writing, an acrostic can be used as a mnemonic device to aide memory retrieval. Constrained writing is a Literary technique in which the writer is bound by some condition that forbids certain things or imposes a pattern A mnemonic device (nəˈmɒnɪk is a Memory aid Commonly met mnemonics are often verbal something such as a very short poem or a special word used to help a person remember

Contents 1 History 2 Overview 3 Examples 4 Disputed acrostics 5 See also 6 External links

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. The Erythraean Sibyl, by the name of Herophile was the prophetess of Classical antiquity presiding over the Apollonian Oracle at Erythrae This technique was later used to ingenious effect by Vladimir Nabokov in his story The Vane Sisters. This page is about the novelist For his father the politician see Vladimir Dmitrievich Nabokov. "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

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. The Book of Lamentations (אֵיכָה Eikha, ʾēḫā(h is a book of the Bible Old Testament and Jewish Tanakh. Jeremiah ( jirmɛ'jahu; Septuagint Greek: Ἰερεμίας was one of the 'greater prophets ' of the Hebrew Bible. Psalms ( Hebrew: Tehilim, תהילים, or "praises" is a book of the Hebrew Bible (the Christian Old Testament) included The term Hebrew Bible is a generic reference to those books of the Bible originally written in Biblical Hebrew (and the related Biblical Aramaic 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 Hebrew alphabet (אָלֶף-בֵּית עִבְרִי alephbet ’ivri) consists of 22 letters used for writing the Hebrew language. Jewish services ( Hebrew: תפלה, tefillah; plural תפלות, tefillos or tefillot; Yinglish: davening

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). Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (in English Poliphilo's Strife of Love in a Dream, from Greek hypnos, ‘sleep’ eros, Benjamin Jonson ( c 11 June 1572 &ndash 6 August 1637) was an English Renaissance Dramatist Giving emphasis to, and capitalizing the key letters renders such acrostics relatively easier to discern. However, acrostics may also be used as a form of steganography, where the author seeks to conceal the message rather than proclaim it. Steganography is the art and science of writing hidden messages in such a way that no one apart from the sender and intended recipient even realizes there is a hidden message 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. 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. The Renaissance (from French Renaissance, meaning "rebirth" Italian: Rinascimento, from re- "again" and nascere A Bible code (also Torah code) is the notion that there are information patterns encrypted or Coded form in the text of the Bible, or more specifically ^[1]

Examples

The Dutch national anthem (The William) is an acrostic: the first letters of its fifteen stanzas spell WiLLEM VAN NASSOV. Het Wilhelmus ( ( English Translation: The William) is the National anthem of the Netherlands and is the oldest national anthem in 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 I Prince of Orange ( April 24 1533 — July 10 1584) also widely known as William the Silent (Willem de Zwijger or simply

Here is an example in English, an Edgar Allan Poe poem titled simply An Acrostic:

Another example is from Lewis Carrol's "Through the Looking-Glass". Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (ˈdɒdsən (27 January 1832 &ndash 14 January 1898 better known by the Pen name Lewis Carroll (/ˈkærəl/ was an English Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There ( 1871) is a work of Children's literature by Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson The final chapter "A Boat, Beneath A Sunny Sky" is an acrostic of the real Alice's name: Alice Pleasance Liddell.

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. For instance, 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

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

A mesostic is a Poem or other Typography such that a vertical phrase intersects lines of horizontal text A word square is a special case of Acrostic. It consists of a set of words all having the same number of letters as the total number of words (the "order" of the square Acronyms, initialisms, and alphabetisms are Abbreviations that are formed using the initial components in a phrase or name Gordon Macdonald 1st Baron Macdonald of Gwaenysgor PC (1885&ndash1966 was a British politician and Newfoundland 's final British governor The O Antiphons are Antiphons used at daily prayer in the evenings of the last days of Advent in various Liturgical Christian traditions Gustavus Conyngham (about 1744 – 27 November 1819) was born in County Donegal, Ireland, and was a merchant sea captain officer in the

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