Acrostic poem

Acrostic poem is one of the first forms of poetry many children learn to write. It involves spelling out the subject vertically on the page and using each letter to start a new line. The result is known as an acrostic poem, and can range from a very basic description of the subject to an extremely intricate long-form ode or epigram.

An acrostic poem does not necessarily have to rhyme or follow any particular poetic form, but it should describe or allude to the subject formed by the vertical opening letters.

Several Biblical psalms are actually acrostic poems, since each line begins with the next letter of the Hebrew or Greek alphabet. American poet and author Edgar Allan Poe once wrote an acrostic poem dedicated to a woman named Elizabeth, while British author Lewis Carroll used the full name of Alice Liddell to begin each line of the last chapter of one of his long-form poems.