Have you ever read a poem and found any additional, concealed message in it? Have you noticed the first letters of the lines to form a word? Than you surely know about acrostics.

The acrostic is a type of poem or other writing form in which the first letters, words or phrases of the text or verse spell out a word or phrase, sometimes even a whole sentence. The word akrostichis itself means ‘top verse’ in Greek.

The acrostic poems may be on different theme and subject. For example someone’s name may be formed by the first letters of all the lines or a whole message may be hidden in the first words’ combination. A special type of acrostic is abecdearian acrostics, when the first letters of the poem form the alphabet.

In some cases acrostics may be more complicated and have word formations both in the beginning and in the end. In some cases the poem may even have highlighted letters in the middle parts of the line which will form a total sentence or message.

It’s not an easy task to write an acrostic poem. For instance you may write sweet or cute poems very easily, but that does’t guarantee you success with acrostics as well. Another issue is the detectability of an acrostic. Sometimes if the author wants it may be easily perceivable for the reader or it may be cryptic style so that only certain readers will be able to understand the message.

Acrostics are interesting, especially if you find the hidden context and message.

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