Acrostic
An acrostic is a form of writing in which the first letter of each line, paragraph, or stanza spells out a word, message, or the alphabet. This technique is often used in poetry, literature, and puzzles to convey hidden meanings or messages. Acrostics can add an element of creativity and challenge for both writers and readers.
3 Key excerpts on "Acrostic"
- Tremper Longman III and Peter Enns, Tremper Longman III(Authors)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- IVP(Publisher)
...By means of technique, eye and ear are “charmed by the familiar, yet aroused and captivated by the unexpected” (Watson, 33). Yet Acrostic is not merely ornamental; it is part of the communicative process. Put another way, what a poem says is the result of how it is said. The following suggestions have been offered to explain the function of Acrostic technique. 3.1. Magic. In his study of Lamentations, Gottwald (25) assessed this explanation sensibly: “By studying the magical ideas associated with language we may undoubtedly learn something about the origin of the alphabet and the Acrostic, but any direct transfer to Lamentations is doubtful.” Indeed, there is no evidence that any of the biblical Acrostics have a magical or occult purpose. 3.2. Pedagogy. The aforementioned poems share a didactic quality; alphabetic Acrostics certainly were in use as didactic method, and they are closely associated with the wisdom tradition (cf. Prov 31:10-31; Sir 51:13-30). But the function of each poem must be understood on its own terms. To view Lamentations, for instance, as a device for practice in writing and the imitation of literary technique may miss the point, given the occasion and solemnity of its message. Besides, the more complex canonical Acrostics suggest that they did not share the basic function of, say, The New England Primer, commended “for the more easy attaining the true reading of English.” 3.3. Mnemonic Aid. The mnemonic view also suggests that Acrostics had a practical purpose. Again, the complex features of the canonical Acrostics militate against it. Incompleteness (missing letters), alternate ordering, irregular patterning, intricacies of style (e.g., the ʾāleplāmed - pê pattern in Pss 25; 34) and even the sheer length of poems (e.g., Ps 119; Lam 1—5) point in a different direction. 3.4. Display of Skill. Once this design is chosen, poets are forced to use their skill in a special way...
eBook - ePubAn Anthropology of Puzzles
The Role of Puzzles in the Origins and Evolution of Mind and Culture
- Marcel Danesi(Author)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...As Bombaugh (1961) has amply illustrated in his collection of word games, palindromes are found throughout history and across languages. Many were apparently constructed on purpose for socially significant events. Actually, the Sator Acrostic constitutes a particular type of word square, a grid of letters which conceals words or messages. One of the earliest examples, dating from the second or third century CE, is a thirty-nine by thirty-nine square array of Greek letters, carved in alabaster by an Egyptian sculptor known as Moschion. To read the square one must start at the center and read right or left, up or down, turning at right angles along the way. This reveals the phrase “Moschion to Osiris, for the treatment which cured his foot,” which is repeated over and over, in everlasting tribute to the healing god. Acrostics migrated to the domain of recreational game playing in the nineteenth century, when Queen Victoria made ingenious Acrostics, such as the one below, which dates to 1856. The initial letters in the answer column, read downward, spell out the name of an English town, and the final letters, read upward, tell what that town is famous for (Costello 1988: 13): A city in Italy A river in Germany A town in the US 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 The answers are Naples, Elbe, Washington, Cincinnati, Amsterdam, Stamboul (antiquated name for Istanbul), Tornea, Lepanto, and Ecliptic. Now, taking the first letters in each of these answers produces: Newcastle which is famous for its coalmines. The latter word is constructed with the last letters of the answers in reverse order. Lewis Carroll wrote scores of Acrostic poems in the same century, raising them to a literary genre...
eBook - ePub- Nancy L. deClaisse-Walford, Rolf A. Jacobson, Beth LaNeel Tanner(Authors)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Eerdmans(Publisher)
...As Gerstenberger has noted, “With twenty-one letters to the alphabet the poem needed at least forty-two lines. The stichoi opening with d, m, n, s, ṣ are entirely missing, or rather, unrecognizable. Other lines are irregular in length.” 2 Moreover, the pê stanza is out of order, the kāp stanza is only one verse long, and the hê stanza is disputed. If one assumes that at one point the psalm was a completely regular Acrostic with each stanza containing two verses 3 — an assumption which is by no means secure — then one must admit that the poem has been corrupted, especially in 9:7-10 and 10:3-11. The Acrostic nature of the psalm obscures identification of both genre and setting. Perhaps the alphabetic Acrostic indicates that the poem is more of a literarily composed prayer than a cultically performed prayer. Gerstenberger disputes this: “Acrostic poems certainly can be used in rituals, especially if they are the handiwork of skilled, literary singers or clergymen.” 4 He thinks of the psalm in a synagogal setting as the prayer of an afflicted person or community. Many elements of a typical prayer for help, such as complaints about the enemies, petitions for deliverance, and vows of praise and trust, are present. But the constraints of the alphabetic Acrostic pattern certainly control and perhaps obscure what one might expect of the normal flow and movement of a prayer for help (if such a flow actually exists). But the general themes of the psalm — trust and praise in the Lord’s judgment and justice along with pleas for God’s intervention for the oppressed — do seem to encompass themes traditionally associated with the prayer for help. The purpose of alphabetic Acrostics is debated. As many have pointed out, Acrostic devices aid in memorization and recitation. But memorization is a means, not an end. To what end does the memorized poem point? Perhaps the purpose of the psalm is instruction in prayer and praise. More likely, the purpose is a prayer for help...
