Product Code Database
An acrostic is a poetry 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 acrostiche from post-classical Latin acrostichis, from Koine Greek ἀκροστιχίς, from Ancient Greek ἄκρος "highest, topmost" and στίχος "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.
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 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.
'''Ι'''ησοῦς I Jesus
'''Χ'''ριστός CH Christ
'''Θ'''εοῦ TH God's
'''Υ'''ἱός Y Son
'''Σ'''ωτήρ S Saviour
According to Cicero, acrostics were a regular feature of Sibylline Books (which were written in Greek . The type of acrostic is that known as a “gamma acrostic” (from the shape of the Greek letter Γ), where the same words are found both horizontally and vertically.de Divinatione (2.111–112). The passage is quoted and translated in Cicero refers to an acrostic in this passage using the Greek word ἀκροστιχίς.
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 λεπτή 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:
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 MARS (the god of war) appears in acrostic form as well as in the text as follows:Pointed out by
In Georgics 1 429–433, next to a passage which contains the words namque is certissimus auctor , 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 LAESIS 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. πείθει, 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 πείθει 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 δεκάτη ) 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 AVDI ME ‘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 DISCE ‘learn!’ ( Odes 1.18.11–15) (forming a gamma acrostic with the word discernunt in line 18) and OTIA in Satires 1.2.7–10, which appears just after Horace has been advised to take a rest from writing satire. The acrostic OTIA 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 Pindarum '(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 Iambi 'iambics'), the first two lines begin ibis ... amice, 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.
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:
The 3rd century AD poet Commodian wrote a series of 80 short poems on Christian themes called Instructiones. Each of these is fully acrostic (with the exception of poem 60, where the initial letters are in alphabetical order), starting with PRAEFATIO ‘preface’ and INDIGNATIO DEI ‘the wrath of God’. The initials of poem 80, read backwards, give COMMODIANUS MENDICUS CHRISTI ‘Commodian, Christ’s beggar’.
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):
In 1939, Rolfe Humphries received a lifelong ban from contributing to Poetry magazine after he penned and attempted to publish "a poem containing a concealed scurrilous phrase aimed at a well-known person", namely Nicholas Murray Butler. The poem, entitled "An ode for a Phi Beta Kappa affair", was in blank verse, contained one Ancient Greece Ancient Rome per line, and ran as follows:
Over Ampsanctus' vale and Pentheus' glade,
Laelaps and Ladon, Dromas, Canace,
As these in fury harry brake and hill
So the great dogs of evil bay the world.
Memory, Mother of , be resigned
Until King Saturn comes to rule again!
Remember now no more the golden day
Remember now no more the fading gold,
Astraea fled, Proserpina in Hades;
You searchers of the earth be reconciled!
Because, through all the blight of human woe,
Under Robigo's rust, and Clotho's shears,
The mind of man still keeps its argosies,
Lacedaemonian Helen wakes her tower,
Echo replies, and lamentation loud
Reverberates from Thrace to Delos Isle;
Itylus/" itemprop="url" title="Wiki: nightingale"><span itemprop="name">Itylus">nightingale">Itylus grieves, for whom the [[nightingale
Sweetly as ever tunes her Daulian strain.
And over Tenedos the flagship burns.
How shall men loiter when the great moon shines
Opaque upon the sail, and Argive seas
Rear like blue dolphins their cerulean curves?
Samos is fallen, Lesbos streams with fire,
Etna in rage, Canopus cold in hate,
Summon the Orphic bard to stranger dreams.
And so for us who raise Athene's torch.
Sufficient to her message in this hour:
Sons of Columbia, awake, arise!
In October 2009, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger sent a veto message to assemblyman Tom Ammiano in which the first letters of lines 3-9 spell "Fuck You"; Schwarzenegger claimed that the acrostic message was coincidental, which mathematicians Stephen Devlin and Philip Stark disputed as statistically implausible.
In January 2010, Jonathan I. Schwartz, the CEO of Sun Microsystems, sent an email to Sun employees on the completion of the acquisition of Sun by Oracle Corporation. The initial letters of the first seven paragraphs spelled "Beat IBM".
James May, former presenter on the BBC program Top Gear, was fired from the publication Autocar for spelling out a message using the large red initial at the beginning of each review in the publication's Road Test Yearbook Issue for 1992. Properly punctuated, the message reads: "So you think it's really good, yeah? You should try making the bloody thing up; it's a real pain in the arse."
In the 2012 third novel of his Caged Flower series, author Cullman Wallace used acrostics as a plot device. The parents of a protagonist send e-mails where the first letters of the lines reveal their situation in a concealed message.
On 19 August 2017, the members of president Donald Trump's Committee on Arts and Humanities resigned in protest over his response to the Unite the Right rally incident in Charlottesville, Virginia. The members' letter of resignation contained the acrostic "RESIST" formed from the first letter of each paragraph.
On 23 August 2017, University of California, Berkeley energy professor Daniel Kammen resigned from his position as a State Department science envoy with a resignation letter in which the word "IMPEACH" was spelled out by the first letters of each paragraph.
In the video game Zork the first letters of sentences in a prayer spelled "Odysseus" which was a possible solution to a Cyclopes encounter in another room.
All three seasons of the American animated series The Owl House use acrostics in their episode titles. The first two seasons use the first letters to spell out "A WITCH LOSES A TRUE WAY" and "SEEK THE KEY, FEAR THE LOCK," respectively; while, the third season uses the first words to spell out "Thanks For Watching."
In 2023, pop singer Shakira released the song "Acróstico", which spells out the names of her children Milan and Sasha in the first letters of each line.
On 4 May 2024, Noelia Voigt resigned as Miss USA 2023 with a resignation letter containing an acrostic spelling out "I am silenced".
'''S''' et among hills in the midst of five valley '''S''',
'''T''' his peaceful little market town we inhabi '''T'''
'''R''' efuses (vociferously!) to be a conforme '''R'''.
'''O''' nce home of the cloth it gave its name t '''O''',
'''U''' phill and down again its streets lead yo '''U'''.
'''D''' espite its faults it leaves us all charme '''D'''.
The first letters make up the acrostic and the last letters the telestich; in this case they are identical.
Another example of a double acrostic is the first-century Latin Sator Square.
| S A T O R |
| A R E P O |
| T E N E T |
| O P E R A |
| R O T A S |
(The text of the manuscript shown differs significantly from the text usually published, including in the reference. Many of the lines have somewhat different wording; and while the acrostics are the same as far as they go, the published text is missing the last four lines, truncating the acrostics to "Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kin", "O God, my God, why hast thou forsak", and "If thou art the Christ, save thyself". The manuscript text is printed below, first as normal poetry, then spaced and bolded to bring out the acrostics. The word "Thou" in line 8 is not visible in this photograph, but is in the published version and is included in a cross-stitch sampler of the poem from 1793.)
Behold, O God! '''IN RI''' vers of my tears
I come to thee! bow down thy blessed ears
To hear my Plaint; and let thine eyes which keep
Continual watch behold a Sinner weep:
Let not, '''O GOD my GOD''' my Sins, tho' great,
And numberless, bet-'''W'''-een thy Mercy's-Seat
And my poor Soul '''H'''-ave place; since we are taught,
''[Thou]'' '''Lord, remember''' st th-'''Y'''-ne, '''If Thou art''' sought.
I co-'''ME''' not, Lord, wit-'''H''' any o-'''THE'''-r merit
Than '''WH'''-at I by my S-'''A'''-viour '''CH'''-rist inherit:
Be th-'''EN''' his Wound-'''S''' my Balm— his St-'''RI'''-pes my Bliss;
His '''TH'''-orns my crown; my dea-'''T'''-h be ble-'''ST''' in his.
And th-'''OU''', my bles-'''T''' Redeemer, '''SA'''-viour, God,
Quit my ac-'''CO'''-unts, with-'''H'''-old thy '''VE'''-ngeful rod!
O beg for '''ME''', my h-'''O'''-pes on '''T'''-hee are set;
And Chri-'''ST''' forgi-'''V'''-e me, since t-'''H'''-ou'st paid my debt
The liv-'''IN'''-g font, the Li-'''F'''-e, the Wa-'''Y''', I know,
And but '''TO''' thee, '''O''' whither '''S'''-hall I go?
All o-'''TH'''-er helps a-'''R'''-e vain: grant thin-'''E''' to me,
For in th-'''Y''' cross my '''S'''-aving hea-'''L'''-th I see.
O hear-'''K'''-en then, th-'''A'''-t I with '''F'''-aith implore,
Lest S-'''IN''' and Death sin-'''K''' me to rise '''+''' no more.
Lastly, O '''G'''-od, my cours-'''E''' direct '''A'''-nd guide,
In '''D'''-eath defe-'''N'''-d me, that I '''N'''-ever slide;
And at Do-'''OM'''-sday let '''M'''-e be rais'-'''D''' again,
To live '''+''' with the-'''E''' sweet Jes-'''US''' say, Amen.
|
|
