Word Play (Acrostic)

Many poems are example of word play. For example, Edgar Allan Poe's "Elizabeth":

Elizabeth-it surely is most fit
(Logic and common usage so commanding)
In thy own book that first thy name be writ,
Zeno and other sages notwithstanding;
And I have other reasons for so doing
Besides my innate love of contradicion;
Each poet-if a poet-in pursuing
The muses thro' their bowers of Truth or Fiction,
Has studied very little of his part,
Read nothing, written less-in short's a fool
Endued with neither soul, nor sense, nor art,
Being ignorant of one important rule,
Employed in even the theses of the school-
Called-I forget the heathenish Greek name-
(Called any thing, its meaning is the same)
"Always write first things uppermost in the heart."

If you write down the first letter of each line, in order, you find that they spell the name "Elizabeth Rebecca". This is an example of an ACROSTIC, which means literally, "outermost line of poetry". As a literary form, the basic acrostic is a poem in which the first letters of the lines, read downwards, forms a word, phrase or sentence. (NOTE: Rhyming is optional.) Another variation of this is the "double acrostic", where the first and the LAST letters of the line are used.

For practice, use your name or handle to create an acrostic.

From The Teacher's & Writer's Handbook of Poetic Forms, edited by Ron Padgett. (Much of this class is based on this book.)

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