Acrostics: Poetry, Top to Bottom

Acrostics are one of my favorite poetic forms! I think they’re a blast to play with. The word acrostics comes from the Greek ákros, meaning top or tip, and stíchos, meaning verse. They are poems that, if you read the first letter of each line down the poem, the letters form a new word or phrase, related to the poem.

Acrostics have been around a long time, and the earliest known versions were recorded in Ancient Greece. Focusing on the children’s side of things, here’s an example from Through the Looking-Glass (in the public domain), by Lewis Carroll. The last chapter is called "A Boat, Beneath A Sunny Sky." The poem is an acrostic of Alice Pleasance Liddell, the name of the real Alice.

A boat, beneath a sunny sky
Lingering onward dreamily
In an evening of July -

Children three that nestle near,
Eager eye and willing ear,

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