What are acrostics? History and typology

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Today for poets there is a huge choice of poetic forms in which they can create their masterpieces. One of them is an acrostic, which was especially popular among the poets of the Silver Age. Acrostics were written by Valery Bryusov, Anna Akhmatova, Nikolai Gumilyov and even Sergei Yesenin. Throughout the history of literature, many other famous poets have also tried their hand at writing acrostics.

What are acrostics

The very word "acrostic" came from the Greek language and meant "poetic line". It is noteworthy that the Slavs had their own word for this concept - edge stitching.

As a rule, any text with meaning was considered an acrostic, from the initial letters of each line of which it was possible to form a word, phrase or sentence. It is noteworthy that the Greeks also considered ordinary texts without rhyme as acrostics.

Acrostics in Ancient Rome and Medieval Europe

Having figured out what acrostics are, you should familiarize yourself with a brief history of their appearance and distribution.

The creator of this poetic form is Epicharmus, a poet and playwright of Ancient Greece. It was with his light hand that this poetic form appeared.

A little later, this type of poem became widespread in the Roman Empire. Having borrowed many cultural elements from the Greeks, the Romans also began to use acrostics frequently. Especially popular was an acrostic in the name of some patron of the poet or his beautiful lover. Sometimes Roman poets ciphered clues into riddles in their poems. Often, writing acrostics was just an exercise for the poet.

One of the most famous works of this type is associated with the spread of Christianity in the Roman Empire. So, being at first outside the law, Christians, in order to recognize each other, composed an acrostic dedicated to the word "Jesus".

This work belongs more to a subspecies of acrostic - acrotelestic.

With the emergence of Christianity as the only religion in the Middle Ages, acrostics did not lose their popularity. However, now they were more often written not by secular poets, but by monks who had taken tonsure. When writing poetic works dedicated to God, as well as on biblical subjects, the monks often "hid" their names or clues on how to correctly understand this text in them.

In secular literature, the acrostic was also often used. However, now he played the role of a cipher due to increased censorship from the church. Many progressive thinkers and scientists with the help of acrostics shared with each otherclassified information or teased the authorities.

To whom are the acrostics of the Middle Ages dedicated? Most often to noble people. Many talented poets of that time, in order to have a powerful patron, dedicated their works to them. However, not everyone managed to write really good acrostics because of the complex structure of the poem and the need to preserve the corresponding meaning in it. In addition, we althy people were not fools and, although they did not really understand the intricacies of poetry, they were able to notice a poorly written verse.

Acrostics in Russian literature of the late eighteenth - early twentieth centuries

In Russian literature, the acrostic (examples below) became widespread thanks to Archimandrite Herman, who lived in the seventeenth century. Possessing a good poetic talent, the hieromonk wrote poems based on the psalms of David. Often in his poems, he encrypted his name. Only seventeen of his poetic works have survived to our time, and all of them are written in the style of acrostics.

In the eighteenth - first half of the nineteenth centuries, acrostics gradually lost their popularity, giving way to other poetic forms.

But with the advent of the Silver Age of Russian poetry (at the end of the nineteenth century), with the appearance of many great poets in literature, the acrostic became popular again. The development of symbolism also contributed to this, since the acrostic helped to graphically “hide” a certain symbol in the poem.

Anna Akhmatova, Nikolay Gumilyov, Valentin Bryusov and many othersother brilliant poets of that era composed beautiful acrostics, sometimes dedicating them to each other or competing with each other with their help. Valery Bryusov was especially fond of acrostics, who wrote many acrostics of various types.

Throughout the twentieth century and today, acrostics are no longer so popular, but they are present in the work of almost every poet. This is due to the fact that an acrostic is a kind of challenge - after all, only a poet who is fluent in the ability to rhyme can compose a good acrostic. In addition, today acrostics are often written to order to give someone a gift for the holiday, and this congratulation was unique. Sometimes they are simply dedicated to some event or season. So, Anastasia Bogolyubova wrote a small acrostic "Spring".

Breathing the fragrance of life, Natural and sweet to the heart, Escaped from dirty freeways, Alone with nature's powerChords of the forest will sound.

Types of Acrostics

Having figured out what acrostics are and learning about their history, you can move on to their typology. Regarding the purpose of acrostics, there are three types of them.

1. Acrostic dedication. The most common form for the entire time of the existence of this poetic form. In the capital letters of the poem, as a rule, the name of the person to whom this work was dedicated was encrypted - a benefactor, a loved one, or just a friend. Acrostic dedications were often written to each other by poets of the Silver Age. For example, Nikolai Gumilyov wrote an acrostic about Anna Akhmatova.



2. Acrostic key. In this poem, in capital letters, the key to understanding the meaning of the whole work is encrypted. Often used in riddles. An example is the acrostic "Friendship" by Yuri Neledinsky-Meletsky, intended for Tsarevich Alexei.



3. Acrostic cipher. Some word, phrase or even a whole sentence is encrypted in it, which strangers should not have noticed. Such an acrostic became widespread during the rampant church inquisition. And also in different eras in countries where censorship was especially demanding.

There are also other varieties of acrostic. These are abecedary, mesostich, telestych, acrotelech, acro-construction and diagonal acrostic. Although sometimes all of them are distinguished as separate types of poetic form. At the moment, the question of whether they belong to subtypes of acrostics remains open.

Abetsedarius

Abetsedary - an acrostic written in alphabetical order. In this work, each word or the beginning of a stanza begins with a letter of the alphabet in order. The Abecedary of Valery Bryusov is widely known in Russian literature.

Telestych

Mirror analogue of an acrostic. In it, the encrypted word is not in the first letters of the initial lines of the poem, but in the last.

Often, instead of a single letter, a whole syllable or even a word was highlighted at the end of a stanza. This poetic form was very popular in the Romanliterature.

Acrotelestic

This subspecies is a combination of elements of acrostic and telestic. A secret word or phrase can be composed not only from the initial letters of each stanza, but also from the last ones. Most often, the start and end phrases are identical, although there are exceptions. An example of such a poem is the work of Mikhail Bashkeev "Acrotelestic for I. B.".

Mesoverse

In this type of poetic form, the letters in the middle of each stanza form a word. This verse is not very popular. Since people often divide poems into stanzas at their discretion, and then it is very difficult to find the encrypted word.

Diagonal Acrostic

Sometimes the meso-verse and the diagonal acrostic are confused, considering them the same. Meanwhile, these are completely different species. In a diagonal acrostic, the word is encrypted diagonally, not vertically.

Sometimes this view is also called a "maze", since even with a mesoverse, it will not be easy to find the secret word by dividing the lines incorrectly.

Acroconstruction

Acroconstruction combines elements of acrostic, telestic and other types at the same time. At the beginning of the twentieth century, in Russian literature, acroconstructions dedicated to Marina Tsvetaeva and Platon Karpovsky were composed by Valentin Zagoryansky. He, like no one else, managed to cope with this difficult poetic form. Below is a poem dedicated to Karpovsky.

Tautograms

Tautograms are also related to acrostics. In rare cases, they are mistaken for acrostics, but this is a delusion. In these poems, all words begin with one letter. For example, Bryusov's famous tautogram poem.

Today, not everyone knows what acrostics (the term itself) is, but at the same time, no one will refuse if such a work is dedicated to him. If desired, everyone can order a unique nominal acrostic for themselves or their loved ones. In addition, anyone with even a little ability to rhyme can try their hand at writing acrostics, because this is a very entertaining activity.