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Poetry Prompt: 6 Steps to Writing the Polished Acrostic

By Heather Eure 14 Comments

pretty-asian-girl-acrostic-poetry-for-herAn acrostic poem can be written about anything, but this form is a charming mechanism for paying homage to someone or something you love. Six simple guidelines will have you writing polished acrostics in no time.

Six Steps to Writing the Polished Acrostic Poem

1. First, decide on the subject of your poem. Perhaps your true love, a child—or yes, a devoted pet. Use either the first name, middle, last, or the whole kit and kapoodle kaboodle.

2. Write the name of the object of your affection in a vertical line.

3. Research the name to aid you in planning the kind of pattern you’d like the poem to follow or the images you’d like to include. The letters from the name can appear at the beginning, middle, or end of each line.

4. Think about the form of the poem. Would you like your poem to rhyme? Would you like to up the ante and try your hand at another form, combined with the acrostic? Say, a sonnet?

5. Once you’ve decided on the pattern of your acrostic poem, begin to work on a line or phrase for each letter of your chosen name. In each line, consider the qualities of the subject you’d most like to illustrate. You can embolden or use capital letters so the name will stand out.

6. Read through your lines and revise any that seem to throw off the balance of your poem.

At last, you have a polished tribute. That wasn’t so hard, now was it?

See Sample Poem: Elizabeth, by Edgar Allan Poe

 

Try It: Acrostic Poetry

Now that you know a little more about what acrostic poetry looks like, it’s time to practice. Did a special someone or something come to your mind as you were reading? You’ve found your subject! Now here’s an extra challenge: Try to write an acrostic poem where the letters of your subject’s name are found in the middle or at the end of your poem.

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Thanks to everyone who participated in last week’s poetry prompt. It was a fun kick-off to this month’s theme! Here’s an acrostic poem from Rick we enjoyed:

The Moments When We Choose to Play

Is what we see before us real?
Mirage we know is a need expressed,
And mirrors? We know that tale.
Go instead where the earth is dressed
In green, with broad and urgent calls
Not seen, but so conspicuously expressed
Every eye and every ear alert to all
Din and melody, but hidden every perch and nest.
Jaundiced eyes, come here, remove the pall.
Amend your days and nights and what is blessed;
Your imagination waits—let the worldly clatter fall.

—by Rick Maxson, of Imagined Jay

Photo by Jonathan Kos-Read. Creative Commons via Flickr.

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How to Write a Poem 283 high How to Write a Poem uses images like the buzz, the switch, the wave—from the Billy Collins poem “Introduction to Poetry”—to guide writers into new ways of writing poems. Excellent teaching tool. Anthology and prompts included.

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  • Author
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Heather Eure
Heather Eure
Heather Eure has served as the Poetry Editor for the late Burnside Collective and Special Projects Editor for us at Tweetspeak Poetry. Her poems have appeared at Every Day Poems. Her wit has appeared just about everywhere she's ever showed up, and if you're lucky you were there to hear it.
Heather Eure
Latest posts by Heather Eure (see all)
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Filed Under: Acrostics, Blog, poetry prompt, poetry teaching resources, writer's group resources, writing prompt

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Comments

  1. Rick Maxson says

    October 11, 2016 at 4:24 am

    Thank you, Heather, for highlighting my acrostic. It is a fun form.

    Reply
  2. Rick Maxson says

    October 11, 2016 at 4:29 am

    The wonderful thing about acrostics is how they lead you to discover what there is to write about the word(s) you choose initially. I read the following word recently, for the first time in a long time in Jane Hirshfield’s The Nine Gates:

    Prestidigitation

    Preparation determines the success.
    Reality has no place here—every
    Eye diverted elsewhere, a sufficient
    Second for the unsuspected space,
    The drop and slide to left, while the hand moves right.
    In your mind, queen of hearts, the middle card,
    Definitely followed with its juggling
    In between the other two, ace and king.
    Guess now! says Longsleeves, with a cat-like smile.
    Is the queen of hearts in her proper place?
    This is where we get it wrong, where our sight
    Alone fails us, direction led away
    Toward the rabbit hole, where the queen hides
    In full regalia, playing croquet
    On the lawn, shouting near the left wicket,
    Never lose your head and fall for three card monte!

    Reply
    • Donna Falcone says

      October 11, 2016 at 9:16 am

      Richard, you have a way with this form! 🙂 I love that queen at the end.

      Reply
      • Rick Maxson says

        October 11, 2016 at 9:36 am

        Thanks, Donna. As I said, it is a fun form. As Heather points out, the greater challenge is mixing it with other forms like the sonnet, or perhaps 4 words in a series of quatrains.

        Reply
      • Rick Maxson says

        October 11, 2016 at 9:39 am

        In writing this, I realized that this word may be the source of the iconic word used in old-time magic—PRESTO!

        Reply
    • Heather Eure says

      October 13, 2016 at 10:02 pm

      That’s a ten-dollar word, Rick! Nicely done. I like how you put, “Reality has no place here-”
      Interesting connection with the word Presto! That’s clever of you.

      Reply
  3. Rick Maxson says

    October 11, 2016 at 10:14 am

    Ode to Floppy Ears

    Beauty may be truth,
    And truth, though intrinsically
    Beautiful, can be difficult to see—
    You must look long and hard at times.

    But baby bunnies, worldwide, seem
    Undeniably cute, and this is fact
    Not dependent on anything,
    Not subject to the political, nor religious view.
    You just look at one and tell me otherwise.

    http://handheldpyrometer.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/super-cute-baby-bunnies-super-cute-baby-bunnies-bunny.jpg

    Reply
    • Heather Eure says

      October 13, 2016 at 10:02 pm

      You had me at BABY BUNNY. <3

      Reply
  4. Prasanta says

    October 14, 2016 at 1:22 am

    Fall is my favorite season, and October is especially beautiful and full of color. So, I chose to write an acrostic poem with the word “October”.

    October Elegy

    October enters surreptitiously
    Calmly separates leaf from scion
    Trees relinquish clasp— and foliage
    Obeys the call— scatters asunder
    Browned, crunchy, dispersed—
    Elegy upon the grass
    Rest in peace.

    Reply
  5. Monica Sharman says

    October 14, 2016 at 4:06 pm

    Instead of using the person’s name, I thought I’d use the primary means of my conversations with this good friend. This time I’ll try it with the letters at the end.

    Without it
    our conversation would be
    impossible. (Thank you, Mr. Bell.)
    Heart sounds, signals, a voice
    through strung cables. Don’t hang up.
    I hear your speech,
    your smile in audio
    in transmission
    through a wire.

    Reply
  6. Katie says

    October 16, 2016 at 6:51 pm

    Wow, COOL!
    SO like your poems Prasanta and Monica:)
    this seems really fun – gonna try one now!

    Reply
  7. Katie says

    October 16, 2016 at 7:07 pm

    Total energizer
    Incorrigible pest
    Grumpy as all get out
    Going against the grain
    Encourager extraordinaire
    Ridiculously fun

    *Tigger is a nickname I have for a loved one.

    Reply
  8. Katie says

    October 30, 2016 at 6:40 pm

    Tabloid Material
    Reprehensible
    Ungracious
    Manipulator
    Pooh-Bah

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Poetry Prompt: A Hidden Acrostic - says:
    October 17, 2016 at 8:01 am

    […] Thanks to everyone who participated in last week’s poetry prompt. Here’s a recent acrostic poem from Andrew we […]

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