Does an acrostic poem have to rhyme?

No. An acrostic can rhyme or not, and it can use any meter. The only rule is the hidden word running down the side.

What is a double acrostic?

A double acrostic spells words with both the first and the last letters of each line. When only the last letters spell a word, the poem is called a telestich.

Poetic Form

Acrostic

A poem where the first letters of each line spell out a word, phrase, or message.

1 min read

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LinesVariesOne per letter of the hidden word

SubjectThe hidden wordOften the poem's own theme

RhymeOptionalNo set scheme

VariantsDouble, telestichLast letters can spell words too

About the Acrostic

An acrostic is a poem in which the first letter of each line, when read vertically, spells out a hidden word, phrase, or message. The form is both playful and structural. Readers get a poem and a hidden message at once, working together.

Structure

Variable line count and meter. The defining constraint is that the first letters of each line (read top to bottom) spell out a word, most often the poem's subject. Variants include the double acrostic (first and last letters) and the telestich (last letters only).

An acrostic has no set meter or rhyme. What defines it is that the first letters of the lines, read top to bottom, spell a word or message.

A Short History

6th century BCFour of the five poems in Lamentations are Hebrew alphabet acrostics.
AntiquityGreek and Latin poets hide names in their lines.
Middle AgesChristian and Jewish liturgical poets embrace it.
1871Lewis Carroll hides Alice Liddell's name in a poem.
TodayA favorite first form in classrooms everywhere.

Famous Acrostics

01"An Acrostic"Edgar Allan Poe
02"A Boat, Beneath a Sunny Sky"Lewis Carroll
03"Lamentations" (chapters 1 to 4)Hebrew Bible

Questions About the Acrostic

The things people ask most, answered in a sentence or two.

It is a poem where the first letter of each line, read downwards, spells a word, name or message. Most often the hidden word is the poem's subject.

Acrostics on GS Poetry

Written by poets here, this week and every week.