ACROSTICS.
The acrostic, though an old and favorite form of verse, in our own language has been almost wholly an exercise of ingenuity, and has been considered fit only for trivial subjects, to be classed among nugæ literariæ. The word in its derivation includes various artificial arrangements of lines, and many fantastic conceits have been indulged in. Generally the acrostic has been formed of the first letters of each line; sometimes of the last; sometimes of both; sometimes it is to be read downward, sometimes upward. An ingenious variety called the Telestich, is that in which the letters beginning the lines spell a word, while the letters ending the lines, when taken together, form a word of an opposite meaning, as in this instance:—
| U | nite and untie are the same—so say yo | U. |
| N | ot in wedlock, I ween, has this unity bee | N. |
| I | n the drama of marriage each wandering gou | T |
| T | o a new face would fly—all except you and | I— |
| E | ach seeking to alter the spell in their scen | E. |
In these lines, on the death of Lord Hatherton, (1863), the initial and final letters are doubled:—
| H | ard was his final fight with ghastly Deat | h, |
| H | e bravely yielded his expiring breat | h. |
| A | s in the Senate fighting freedom’s ple | a, |
| A | nd boundless in his wisdom as the se | a. |
| T | he public welfare seeking to direc | t, |
| T | he weak and undefended to protec | t. |
| H | is steady course in noble life from birt | h, |
| H | as shown his public and his private wort | h. |
| E | vincing mind both lofty and sedat | e, |
| E | ndowments great and fitted for the Stat | e, |
| R | eceiving high and low with open doo | r, |
| R | ich in his bounty to the rude and poo | r. |
| T | he crown reposed in him the highest trus | t, |
| T | o show the world that he was wise and jus | t. |
| O | n his ancestral banners long ag | o, |
| O | urs willingly relied, and will do s | o. |
| N | or yet extinct is noble Hatherto | n, |
| N | ow still he lives in gracious Littleto | n. |
Although the fanciful and trifling tricks of poetasters have been carried to excess, and acrostics have come in for their share of satire, the origin of such artificial poetry was of a higher dignity. When written documents, were yet rare, every artifice was employed to enforce on the attention or fix on the memory the verses sung by bards or teachers. Alphabetic associations formed obvious and convenient aids for this purpose. In the Hebrew Psalms of David, and in other parts of Scripture, striking specimens occur. The peculiarity is not retained in the translations, but is indicated in the common version of the 119th Psalm by the initial letters prefixed to its divisions. The Greek Anthology also presents examples of acrostics, and they were often used in the old Latin language. Cicero, in his treatise “De Divinatione,” has this remarkable passage:—“The verses of the Sybils (said he) are distinguished by that arrangement which the Greeks call Acrostic; where, from the first letters of each verse in order, words are formed which express some particular meaning; as is the case with some of Ennius’s verses, the initial letters of which make ‘which Ennius wrote!’”
Among the modern examples of acrostic writing, the most remarkable may be found in the works of Boccaccio. It is a poem of fifty cantos, of which Guinguenè has preserved a specimen in his Literary History of Italy.
A successful attempt has recently been made to use this form of verse for conveying useful information and expressing agreeable reflections, in a volume containing a series of acrostics on eminent names, commencing with Homer, and descending chronologically to our own time. The alphabetic necessity of the choice of words and epithets has not hindered the writer from giving distinct and generally correct character to the biographical subjects, as may be seen in the following selections, which are as remarkable for the truth and discrimination of the descriptions as for the ingenuity of the diction:
GEORGE HERBERT.
G ood Country Parson, cheerful, quaint,