The next is from Planché’s “Songs and Poems:”
To Beatrice.
| “Beauty to claim, amongst the fairest place, Enchanting manner, unaffected grace, Arch without malice, merry but still wise, Truth ever on her lips as in her eyes; Reticent not from sullenness or pride, Intensity of feeling but to hide; Can any doubt such being there may be? Each line I pen, points, matchless maid, to thee!” |
Mdlle. Rachel was the recipient of the most delicate compliment the acrostic has ever been employed to convey. A diadem was presented to her, so arranged that the initial of the name of each stone was also the initial of one of her principal rôles, and in their order formed her name—
| Ruby, | Roxana, | |
| Amethyst, | Amenaide, | |
| Cornelian, | Camille, | |
| Hematite, | Hermione, | |
| Emerald, | Emilie, | |
| Lapis lazuli, | Laodice. |
The following is an ingenious combination of acrostic and telestic combined:
| “Unite and untie are the same—so say you Not in wedlock, I ween, has the unity been In the drama of marriage, each wandering gout To a new face would fly—all except you and I Each seeking to alter the spell in their scene.” |
Edgar A. Poe was the author of a complicated poem of this class, in which the first letter in the lady’s name is the first in the first line; the second, second in the second line; the third, third in the third line, and so on—
A Valentine.