The acrostic poem is simple poetry. An acrostic poetry is one in which the initial letter of each line of the poem includes all of the letters of a word or name. They're quite simple and enjoyable to write. This is how they work: You may choose a term that is as long or as short as you like. Then, start with the first letter of the term in question and go around the circle writing down all the words that begin with this letter. So, if your term was "dog", the first thing you would do is write "d" for the first letter of the term. Next, you would write "o" for the next letter because it starts with "d" then "g" because it starts with "d" then "n" because it starts with "d" then "u" because it starts with "d". Continue doing this until you have gone around the circle once looking at all the different ways you can begin with the letter "d".
Here are some examples of acrostics: The Star-Spangled Banner | The Boy Scout Law | Halloween - Get up early to watch the sunrise! | My birthday is.. | Name something after yourself
Acrostics are fun to write and easy to understand.
To begin, an acrostic poem uses the first letters of each line to spell out a word or phrase. The word or phrase might be a name, an object, or anything else you choose. Acrostics are simple to write since they don't have to rhyme and you don't have to care about the line rhythm. That said, some poets like using allusions to other works or topics within the text to add flavor and meaning to their poems. This type of poetry is called conceptual or abstract poetry.
Here are some famous acrostics:
Alexander Pope's "An Essay on Criticism" begins with these lines: "Criticism is the handmaiden of art; she blushes not when she shaves her master's beard, but by his command."
Robert Frost's "Mending Wall" is a well-known example of a pastoral acrostic: Each stanza starts with the same three words ("Mending wall") followed by eight lines of iambic pentameter. The last line of each stanza ends with the initial letter of the next word (e.g., "M" for "May", "N" for "Nightingale"), with the exception of the last stanza which instead ends with the initial letter of the final word (e.g., "W" for "Wall").
An acrostic poetry is one in which the initial letter of each line, when read vertically, spells out a word, name, or phrase. Acrostic poems are presented to children in elementary school and can be a fun exercise during English Language Arts sessions. The goal is to have students think about the meaning of words as they read them, making connections between lines and thinking about how those words fit together.
Examples of acrostics include: Alice's Restaurant (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland), Do Not Open 'Till Christmas (The Night Before Christmas) and My Name Is Mud (Thomas Jefferson wrote that he was "born an American, lived in France, like my countryman, James Madison, and now live in Russia, where I hope to die"). Many famous poets from around the world have written acrostics including John Milton (1608-1674) and Edward Lear (1812-1888).
Acrostics can be used in the classroom to help students understand words they may not know or use in everyday life. For example, if reading Shakespeare's sonnets, an instructor could point out that "love" is spelled out in an acrostic pattern within each poem.
Students learn about alliteration, assonance, and consonance as they interpret the letters in an acrostic poem.
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