ACROSTIC is a Greek term for a number of versea the first letters of which follow some predetermined order, usually forming a word—most commonly a name—or a phrase or sentence. Sometimes the final letters spell words as well as the initial, and the peculiarity will even run down the middle of the poem like a scam. Sir John Davies composed twenty-six Hymns to Astrea (Queen Elizabeth), in every one of which the initial letters of the lines form the words ELISABETJIA REGINA. The following is one of the twenty-six.
E v'ry night from ev'n to morn.
L ove's chorister amid the thorn I s now so sweet a singer; S o sweet, as for her song I scorn • A pollo's voice and finger.
ut, nightinggale, sith you deligh.
E ver to watch the starry night, T ell all the stars of heaven, 11 eaven never had a star sabright A s now to earth is given.
R opal Astrea makes our day E ternal with her beams, nor may G ross darkness overcome her; I now perceive why some do write N o country bath so short a night A s England bath in summer.
In the A. poetry of the Hebrews, the initial letters of the lines or of the stanzas were made to run over the letters of the alphabet in their order. Twelve of the psalms of the
Old Testament are written on this plan. The 119th Psalm is the most remarkable. his composed of twenty-two divisions or stanzas (corresponding to the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet), each stanza consisting of eight couplets; and the first line of each couples in the first stanza begins, in the original Hebrew, with the letter aleph, in the second stanza with Beth, etc. The divisions of the psalm are named each after the letter that begins the couplets, and these names have been retained in the English translation. With a view to aid the memory, it was customary at one time to compose verses on sacred subjects after the fashion of those Hebrew acrostics, the successive verses or lines begin ning with the letters of the alphabet in their order. Such pieces were called Abecedartan Hymns. See Hook's Church Dictionary.