What is acrostics? History and typology

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

What is 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 notion - krastrochie.

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

Acrostic in Ancient Rome and in medieval Europe

Having dealt with what acrostics are, it is worth familiarizing themselves with the brief history of their appearance and spread.

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

A little later, this type of poem was widespread in the Roman Empire. Borrowing many elements of culture from the Greeks, the Romans also began to often use acrostics. Especially popular was acrostic in the name of some philanthropist of the poet or his beautiful lover. Sometimes Roman poets coded the riddles of riddles in their poems. Often the writing of acrostics was just an exercise for the poet.

One of the most famous works of this kind is associated with the spread of Christianity in the Roman Empire. Thus, being first out of the law, Christians, in order to recognize each other, composed acrostic words "Jesus" the initiate. This work refers more to the sprites of acrostic - acro-telesthe.

With the emergence of Christianity as the only religion in the Middle Ages, acrostics have not lost their popularity. However, now they were more often written not by secular poets, but by monks who took monastic vows. Writing poetry works dedicated to God, as well as on biblical subjects, monks often "hid" their names or clues in them, how to correctly understand this text.

In the secular literature acrostic is also often used. However, now he played the role of a cipher because of the toughened censorship by the church. Many progressive thinkers and scientists with the help of acrostics shared secret information with each other or made fun of the official authorities.

Who is the acrostic of the Middle Ages? Most often, notable people. Many talented poets of that time, to have a powerful patron, dedicated their works to them. However, really good acrostics could not be written to everyone, because of the complicated construction of the poem and the need to keep the corresponding meaning in it. In addition, wealthy people were not fools and, although not very versed in the subtleties of poetry, but a stupidly written verse was able to notice.

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

In the Russian literature 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. Until now, only seventeen of his poetic works have survived, all written in the style of acrostics.

In the eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth centuries the acrostics gradually lost their popularity, yielding to other poetic forms.

But with the advent of the silver age of Russian poetry (at the end of the nineteenth century), with the advent of many great poets in literature, acrostic again became popular. This was facilitated by the development of symbolism, since acrostic helped graphically "hide" a certain symbol in the poem.

Anna Akhmatova, Nikolai Gumilyov, Valentin Bryusov and many other brilliant poets of that epoch wrote beautiful acrostics, sometimes devoting them to each other or competing with them with each other. Especially fond of acrostics Valery Bryusov, the pen of which belongs to a lot of acrostics of a variety of species.

Throughout the twentieth century and today acrostics are not so popular, but in the works of almost every poet they are present. This is due to the fact that acrostic is a kind of challenge - after all, to compose a good acrostic can only perfectly master the ability to rhyme the poet. In addition, acrostics today are often written to order to make someone a gift for the holiday and this greeting was unique. Sometimes they are simply dedicated to some event or time of the year. So, Anastasia Bogolyubova wrote a small acrostic "Spring".

Inhaling the life of the fragrance,
Natural and heart-sweet,
Escaping from the dirty freeways,
Alone with natural power
The chords of the forest will sound.

Types of acrostics

After understanding what acrostics are, and learning about their history, you can go to their typology. With regard to the purpose of acrostics, there are three kinds of acrostics.

1. Acrostic initiation. The most common form for the entire existence of this poetic form. In the capital letters of the poem, as a rule, the name of the person to whom the work was dedicated was written to the benefactor, the beloved person or just a friend. Acrostic-initiations were often written to each other by poets of the silver age. For example, Nikolai Gumilev wrote 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 when writing puzzles. An example is the acrostic "Friendship" by Yuri Neledinsky-Meletsky, intended for the Tsarevich Alexei.
3. Acrostic cipher. Some word, phrase or even a whole sentence is encoded in it, which should not be noticed by strangers. This acrostic has spread in the time of the raging of the church inquisition. And also in different epochs in countries where censorship was particularly demanding.

There are also other varieties of acrostic. This is an ace-suasion, narrowness, telestich, acro-telestech, acro-construction and diagonal acrostic. Although sometimes they all stand out as separate types of poetic form. At the moment, the question of their belonging to the subspecies of acrostics remains open.

Abecedary

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

Teleostich

Mirror analog of acrostic. In it, the encrypted word is not in the first letters of the initial lines of the poem, but in the latter. Often instead of one letter, at the end of the stanza a whole syllable or even a word was singled out. This poetic form was very popular in Roman literature.

AcroTelethism

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

Mesostochis

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

Diagonal acrostic

Sometimes the mediocrities and diagonal acrostic are confused, revering them the same. Meanwhile, these are completely different species. In diagonal acrostic, the word is encrypted diagonally, and not vertically. Sometimes this species is also called a "labyrinth", since even with the mezostich, by incorrectly dividing lines, it will not be easy to find a secret word.

Acrylic construction

Acropolis combines both elements of acrostic, teleostich and other species. At the beginning of the twentieth century, in the Russian literature, acroconstructions dedicated to Marina Tsvetaeva and Platon Karpovsky were composed by Valentin Zagoryansky. He, as anyone managed to cope with this uneasy poetic form. Below is a poem dedicated to Karpovsky.

Tautography

Related to acrostics are also tautograms. In rare cases, they are mistaken for acrostics, but this is misleading. In these poems, all words begin with a single letter. For example, the well-known poem is Bryusov's tattoo.

Today, not everyone knows what acrostics are (the term itself), but no one will refuse if such a work is dedicated to him. If desired, everyone can order for themselves or their loved ones a unique personal acrostic. In addition, any person who knows how to rhyme a little can try his hand at writing acrostics, because this is a very entertaining activity.