An acrostic is a poem or other word composition in which the first letter (or syllable, or word) of each new line (or paragraph, or other recurring feature in the text) spells out a word, message or the alphabet. The term comes from the French from post-classical Latin , from Koine Greek , from Ancient Greek "highest, topmost" and "verse". As a form of constrained writing, an acrostic can be used as a mnemonic device to aid memory retrieval. When the last letter of each new line (or other recurring feature) forms a word it is called a telestich (or telestic); the combination of an acrostic and a telestich in the same composition is called a double acrostic (e.g. the first-century Latin Sator Square).
Acrostics are common in medieval literature, where they usually serve to highlight the name of the poet or his patron, or to make a prayer to a saint. They are most frequent in verse works but can also appear in prose. The Middle High German poet Rudolf von Ems for example opens all his great works with an acrostic of his name, and his world chronicle marks the beginning of each age with an acrostic of the key figure (Moses, David, etc.). In chronicles, acrostics are common in German and English but rare in other languages.
Form Relatively simple acrostics may merely spell out the letters of the alphabet in order; such an acrostic may be called an 'alphabetical acrostic' or abecedarius. These acrostics occur in the Hebrew Bible in the first four of the five chapters of the Book of Lamentations, in the praise of the good wife in Proverbs 31:10-31, and in Psalms 9-10, 25, 34, 37, 111, 112, 119 and 145. Notable among the acrostic Psalms is the long Psalm 119, which typically is printed in subsections named after the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, each section consisting of 8 verses, each of which begins with the same letter of the alphabet and the entire psalm consisting of 22 x 8 = 176 verses; and Psalm 145, which is recited three times a day in the Jewish services. Some acrostic psalms are technically imperfect. For example, Psalm 9 and Psalm 10 appear to constitute a single acrostic psalm together, but the length assigned to each letter is unequal and five of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet are not represented and the sequence of two letters is reversed. In Psalm 25 one Hebrew letter is not represented, the following letter () repeated. In Psalm 34 the current final verse, 23, does fit verse 22 in content, but adds an additional line to the poem. In Psalms 37 and 111 the numbering of verses and the division into lines are interfering with each other; as a result in Psalm 37, for the letters and there is only one verse, and the letter is not represented. Psalm 111 and 112 have 22 lines, but 10 verses. Psalm 145 does not represent the letter , having 21 one verses, but one Qumran manuscript of this Psalm does have that missing line, which agrees with the Septuagint. Some, like O Palmer Robertson, see the acrostic Psalms of book 1 and book 5 of Psalms as teaching and memory devices as well as transitions between subjects in the structure of the Psalms.
Often 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). 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. These are referred to as null ciphers in steganography, using the first letter of each word to form a hidden message in an otherwise innocuous text. Using letters to hide a message, as in acrostic ciphers, was popular during the Renaissance, and could employ various methods of enciphering, such as selecting other letters than initials based on a repeating pattern (equidistant letter sequences), or even concealing the message by starting at the end of the text and working backwards.
Examples Greek
A well-known acrostic in Greek is for the phrase JESUS CHRIST, GOD’S SON, SAVIOUR, the initial letters of which spell (ICHTHYS), which means fish: Ιησοῦς I Jesus Χριστός CH Christ Θεοῦ TH God's Υἱός Y Son Σωτήρ S Saviour
According to Cicero, acrostics were a regular feature of Sibylline prophecies (which were written in Greek hexameters. The type of acrostic is that known as a “gamma acrostic” (from the shape of the Greek letter ), where the same words are found both horizontally and vertically. (2.111–112). The passage is quoted and translated in Cicero refers to an acrostic in this passage using the Greek word .
The 3rd-century BC didactic poet Aratus, who was much admired and imitated by Cicero, Virgil and other Latin writers, appears to have started a fashion for using acrostics. One example is the famous passage in Phaenomena 783–7 where the word occurs as a gamma acrostic and also twice in the text, as well as diagonally in the text and even cryptically taking the initial letters of certain words in lines 2 and 1:
“If (the moon is) slender and clear about the third day, she will bode fair weather; if slender and very red, wind; if the crescent is thickish, with blunted horns, having a feeble fourth-day light after the third day, either it is blurred by a southerly or because rain is in the offing.” (trans. Jerzy Danielewicz)
Latin Several acrostics have recently been discovered in Roman poets, especially in Virgil. Among others, in Eclogue 9 the acrostic (lines 34–38) immediately precedes the words , and (i.e. ) (lines 46–51) in a passage which mentions the goddess Dione (another name for Venus)., citing In Eclogue 8, alongside a passage dedicating the poem to an unnamed person and asking him to accept it, Neil Adkin reads the words (i.e. ) ().
In Aeneid 7.601–4, a passage which mentions Mars and war, describing the custom of opening the gates of the Temple of Janus, the name (the god of war) appears in acrostic form as well as in the text as follows:Pointed out by
“It was a custom in Hesperian Latium, which originally the Alban cities kept as sacred, and now, greatest of entities, Rome keeps, whenever they move Mars to the first battles, whether (they are preparing) to bring tearful war to the Getae …”
In Georgics 1 429–433, next to a passage which contains the words , the double-letter reverse acrostic MA VE PV (i.e. Publius Vergilius Maro) is found on alternate lines.
In Eclogue 6, 13–24 Virgil uses a double acrostic, with the same word going both upwards and downwards starting from the same letter L in line 19.Discovered by Another double acrostic is found in Aeneid 2, where the word PITHI (i.e. , Greek for he ‘persuades’ or ‘he deceives’) is found first backwards at 103–107, then forwards at 142–146, at the beginning and end of a speech by Sinon persuading the Trojans to bring the wooden horse into the city. The discoverer of this acrostic, Neil Adkin, points out that the same word occurs at more or less exactly the same line-numbers in a repeated line describing how Odysseus’ wife Penelope deceived the suitors in Odyssey 2.106 and 24.141.
Another transliterated Greek word used as an acrostic in a pseudo-Sibylline prophecy has recently been noticed in the syllables DE CA TE (i.e. Greek ) in Eclogue 4, 9–11, with the same DEC A TE repeated cryptically both forwards and backwards in line 11.
In another pseudo-Sibylline prophecy in poem 5 of Tibullus book 2 the words ‘hear me!’ are picked out in the first letters of alternate lines at the beginning of the prophecy.
Virgil’s friend Horace also made occasional use of acrostics, but apparently much less than Virgil. Examples are ‘learn!’ (Odes 1.18.11–15) (forming a gamma acrostic with the word in line 18) and in Satires 1.2.7–10, which appears just after Horace has been advised to take a rest from writing satire. The acrostic also occurs in Ovid, Metamorphoses 15.478–81, a passage describing the return of the peace-loving king Numa Pompilius to Rome. Odes 4.2, which starts with the word '(the poet) Pindar' has next to it the truncated acrostic PIN in a gamma formation.Thomas, R. F. (Ed.). (2011). Horace: Odes IV and Carmen Saeculare. Cambridge University Press. In the first poem of Horace's Epodes (which were also known as 'iambics'), the first two lines begin , and it has been suggested that these words were deliberately chosen so that their initial letters IBI ... AM could be rearranged to read IAMBI.Evans, B. (2023). "Τwo Beginnings: Acrostic Commencements in Horace (Epod. 1.1–2) and Ovid (Met. 1.1–3)". The Classical Quarterly, 73(2), 699-713. In his famous lines in the , lines 136–9, containing the proverb "mountains will give birth, but there will be born (nothing but) a ridiculous mouse", Horace writes a telestic MVS joined to the word 'mouse', adding to the humour of the passage. (See The Mountain in Labour.)Mitchell, K. (2020). "Acrostics and telestichs in Augustan poetry: Ovid's edgy and subversive sideswipes". The Cambridge Classical Journal, 66, 165-81; at 166.
Towards the end of the 2nd century AD a verse-summary of the plot was added to each of the plays of Plautus. Each of these has an acrostic of the name of the play, for example:
“Two fellow slaves seek a fellow female slave as a wife; The old man commissions one of them, his son the other. A lottery helps the old man; but he is deceived by tricks. So, instead of the girl, a young slave is substituted, a naughty one, who beats up the master and the farm-manager. The young man marries Casina after she is recognised as a citizen.”
The 3rd century AD poet Commodian wrote a series of 80 short poems on Christian themes called . Each of these is fully acrostic (with the exception of poem 60, where the initial letters are in alphabetical order), starting with ‘preface’ and ‘the wrath of God’. The initials of poem 80, read backwards, give ‘Commodian, Christ’s beggar’.
Mandaean Chapters 2–5 of Book 12 in the Right Ginza, a Mandaic text, are acrostic hymns, with each stanza ordered according to a letter of the Mandaic alphabet.
Dutch There is an acrostic secreted in the Dutch national anthem Wilhelmus (William): the first letters of its fifteen stanzas spell WILLEM VAN NASSOV (the then name for Nassau). This was one of the hereditary titles of William the Silent, who introduces himself in the poem to the Dutch people. This title also returned in the 2010 speech from the throne, during the Dutch State Opening of Parliament, whose first 15 lines also formed WILLEM VAN NASSOV.
English Vladimir Nabokov's short story "The Vane Sisters" is known for its acrostic final paragraph, which contains a message from beyond the grave.
In 1829, Edgar Allan Poe wrote an acrostic and simply titled it "An Acrostic", possibly dedicated to his cousin Elizabeth Rebecca Herring (though the initials L.E.L. refer to Letitia Elizabeth Landon): Elizabeth it is in vain you say "Love not" — thou sayest it in so sweet a way: In vain those words from thee or L.E.L. Zantippe's talents had enforced so well: Ah! if that language from thy heart arise, Breath it less gently forth — and veil thine eyes. Endymion, recollect, when Luna tried To cure his love — was cured of all beside — His folly — pride — and passion — for he died. An even more complicated acrostic was his sonnet "An Enigma" (1848) containing the hidden name of Sarah Anna Lewis (first letter of the first line, second letter of the second line, etc.).