Talk:Acrostic/Archive 1

Homework request
my class is doing acrostic poems for our names. what do you think i should use as my other 2 letters in my name. my name is amber. i have a-adventourous...nothing for m..nothing for b, e-eccentric and r-rare

marvelous and brilliant. ....ahahaahhaahha. thuglasT 16:37, 1 March 2007 (UTC) i m p e r y a l i s m o

Acrostics in pop culture
Acrostics are everywhere. Everywhere. There is no need to point out that they were in a Simpsons episode or what have you. It's irrelevant. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 206.77.151.206 (talk) 22:19, 3 March 2008 (UTC)

reference to real life example
There is a incident concerning a rather long acrostic, which could be referenced by this article: James_May. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.191.125.215 (talk) 09:55, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

Removed acrostic example through "undo"
"NESTLE" had been added below the "WIKIPEDIA" acrostic, giving it the appearance that it was associated with it. I chose to delete rather than separate it because its addition did not enhance the article.--Koyarpm (talk) 21:39, 29 October 2008 (UTC)

Pruning examples
I think the page doesn't need more illustrative examples; the Poe and the Carroll are quite enough, and any more gives the page the look of an anthology rather than an article. The transcription of Behold, O God looks quite messy - I'd favour removing it and just enlarging the image somewhat, since it's high enough resolution to support this, but removing transcriptions introduces accessibility issues - can the transcript be moved to the image page? Pseudomonas(talk) 11:56, 11 November 2009 (UTC)

Image of Carroll's Double-Acrostic
What is the value of this image? It is simply a screenshot of a web-page with the poem on! (Check the image page for a link to the webpage where it appears) It's rather deceptive I think, as one would assume it to be an image of the hand-written poem, especially given the caption which refers to it as having been "scribbled". Fysidiko (talk) 19:28, 7 February 2011 (UTC)


 * Don't see the problem to be honest. Yes, it's taken from a website, but it is obviously a scan of Caroll's original hand-written version of the poem. It's rather a nice example. --Doric Loon (talk) 10:28, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

Paradise Lost
Could it be helpful to include Paradise Lost, as an example of acrostics utilized in one of the most famous works of literature in the English language? There are four, including 9.510 where Satan's name is spelled out. The essay "Satanic Vision and Acrostics in Paradise Lost" by Jane Partner includes the other ones. Maybe it's unnecessary, but I think it certainly warrants more discussion than Schwarzenegger's example. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.170.93.8 (talk) 04:22, 28 May 2011 (UTC)

New England Primer
There are two excellent examples of "Alphabet Acrostics" found in the New England Primer. One is showing on the Wikipedia page of the New England Primer - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_England_Primer. The other "Alphabet Acrostics" in the New England Primer is called, "The Alphabet Lessons for Youth," and uses Scriptures from the Bible for each letter. http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/nep/1777/index.htm This is important to mention. Wikipedia's description of The New England Primer is as follows, "It became the most successful educational textbook published in 18th century America and it became the foundation of most schooling before the 1790s."Easeltine (talk) 14:28, 21 July 2013 (UTC)

how many rivers are there???
there are so many countries all over the world. one of the biggest one is in Egypt that is called the bloody nile. there are 479 rivers! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Daisykeen1 (talk • contribs) 16:38, 20 March 2014 (UTC)

Bill 1176 veto
Shouldn't the veto of Bill 1176 by Governor Schwarzenegger be mentioned in the article? I believe it is the highest political context an acrostic has been used in recent decades if not centuries. If someone does not know what I mean the veto document is available here. --Friendly Neighbour (talk) 22:11, 28 October 2009 (UTC)


 * The link is dead, and the Wayback Machine says "Page cannot be crawled or displayed due to robots.txt."
 * This is covered at Tom Ammiano. The acrostic wasn't in the veto itself, but in Gov. Schwarzenegger's memo to Ammiano about the veto. So the "highest political context" argument doesn't hold up very well. --Thnidu (talk) 07:41, 19 May 2014 (UTC)

Sanskrit non-example deleted
I've deleted an entire subsection, "Example from Sanskrit literature", from Acrostic. Though the source calls this an acrostic, it calls the hidden word ("sasemirā") a "mystic word" with magical effects and doesn't indicate that it really means anything. The actual situation seems to be the reverse of what was claimed, at least for the modern sense of the word: rather than the poem including sasemirā as an acrostic, sasemirā is an acronym for the stanzas of the poem.

(This online Bengali dictionary translates it as "stupefaction, bewilderment, nonplus, daze"; but is that what it means in Sanskrit, or does the Bengali word come from the story?)

The reference says "pp. 366-370". Those page numbers are accurate for the source, but the article is on "pages" 419-423 of the file (a PDF), and the story is on 421-423.

Here's the deleted text, with the reference:

Example from Sanskrit literature
The Chapter V of Kathasaritsagara of the Hindus composed in Sanskrit contains a classic case of “SA-SE-MI-RA” where the initial two letters gave rise to the entire shlok narrated by Vararuchi:

 SAdbhavam pratipannanam vanchane ke vidaghata? ankam aruhya suptanam, hantuh kim nama paurusham? [1]

SEtum gatva samudrasya ganga-sagar-sangame, Brahmahatya pramuchyate, mitra-droha na muchyte! [2]

MItra-drohi, kritaghnas cha yas cha vishvas-ghatakam, Trayas te narakam yanti, yad Chandra-divakarau. [3]

RAjan tvam asya putrasya yadi kalyanam icchhasi, Daanam dehi dvijatinam, tat hita durgati varanam. [4]

Meaning:  In deceiving someone who trusts you, what cleverness is there? Someone who is sleeping on your lap, is killing him called Courage?? [1]

Oblations in the ocean, holy dips in the Sangam, May relieve the sins of Brahma-hatya, but would not dispel sins of Treachery. [2]

The Traitor, Ungrateful and Unfaithful, Will certainly go the Hell till the Moon & Sun are there. [3]

So King, if you wish for the well-being of this (Traitor) Son, Donate to the Learned, that will benefit the fallen Prince. [4]

Sir George Abraham Grierson's article, "Vararuchi as a Guesser of Acrostics” [1] has an elaborate version of the story, as heard from a Tirhutifi Brahman has been exposited. The tale has been described as “The Story of Sasemira".

[1] Indian Antiquary, 1881, vol. x, pp. 366-370, http://indianhistorybooks.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/indian-antiquary-vol-10-1881.pdf

If this section were worth keeping I'd edit it, e.g.,
 * of the Hindus
 * The translation of the poem is a different translation from the one in the source cited. The meaning is the same, but the above translation is clearly not by a native speaker of English (e.g., "Will certainly go the Hell till the Moon & Sun are there" vs. source "go to hell as long as the sun and moon endure"). Perhaps it's by the same person who wrote the text ("The Chapter V of ...", "as heard from a Tirhutifi Brahman has been exposited").

--Thnidu (talk) 08:31, 19 May 2014 (UTC)

Multiple acrostics: Browne poem
The analysis of the poem by William Browne that takes up most of § multiple acrostics has a couple of serious problems: The text that is printed and analyzed is different than the text in the illustration and doesn't contain the complete acrostics! I have
 * edited the article to match the manuscript
 * provided the illustrated text in two formats— one to be read as poetry and one to highlight the acrostics— replacing the (IMHO) awkward and difficult combined format that was there before, which also had the incorrect text
 * inserted an obviously missing word that was evidently off the torn edge of the manuscript
 * added a parenthetical paragraph describing these differences:
 * The text of the manuscript shown differs significantly from the text usually published, including in the reference. The acrostic is the same as far as it goes, but the published text is missing the last four lines, truncating the acrostics to "Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kin", "O God, my God, why hast thou forsak", and "If thou art the Christ, save thyself". The manuscript text is printed below, first as normal poetry, then spaced and bolded to bring out the acrostics. The word "Thou" in line 8 is not visible in this photograph, but is in the published version and is included in a cross-stitch sampler of the poem from 1793.
 * (Besides, the verb "remember'st" requires "thou" as subject, and without it the line is unmetrical and the sentence containing it is ungrammatical.)

The poem is published in several places, some of which mention its acrostic nature. In all of them that I have seen, including the 1793 sampler, the text is the same as the one originally printed here, not the manuscript version, whose origin I don't know.

To discuss this edit, please me. --Thnidu (talk) 09:46, 24 May 2014 (UTC)

vandalism
This page seems to have had a lot of information deleted and a good amount of blank space and nonsense added. I'm not well-versed in "reverting" a page, so can someone else check this out?? Joulesm (talk) 14:43, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Hello. My external link to acrostic has been deleted (http://acro.cristorly.com). I think that this is unfair since I am a professional acrostic writer. My acrostics are balanced, well researched, biographical, biblical, and poetic. My acrostics are written in English and Spanish. Please take a look at my acrostic and poem to Bobby Fischer at http://fischer.cristorly.com. I have published valuable acrostics like the ones about Dominican writer and politician Juan Bosch, one of the masters of the genre of short-story writing. I have also published bilingual acrostics about baseball stars José Rijo and Raúl Mondesí. I think that my external link (http://acro.cristorly.com) is a valuable resource about acrostics, and it should be included in Wikipedia. Thanks. Cristorly. --Cristorly (talk) 21:49, 13 May 2008 (UTC)


 * Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, not a place to advertise your work. --Thnidu (talk) 09:55, 24 May 2014 (UTC)

Vandalistic mass deletions
46.240.254.10's vandalism covers all and only the discussion of acrostics in religious texts. "Mass deletion may be a much more appropriate description than you intended! me to reply. --Thnidu (talk) 09:32, 26 December 2014 (UTC)

uncredited insertion
An IP editor,, added this under §Examples: Moving and shining across the sky On the land it shines On the sea it sparkles Night after night                                 (M-O-O-N)

It's an acrostic all right, and not bad, but it's not poetic, not notable, not credited, and not well placed (between Poe and Carroll, with no introduction or description. I've pulled it. --Thnidu (talk) 05:32, 27 March 2015 (UTC)

External links modified
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Acrostic added
I added one acrostic on the article. I only did one word, in case others want another. -- SEWilco (talk) 03:38, 2 April 2010 (UTC)

ACT -Actual Characteristic Transmission Related with it Listen on Thangavelu Chinnasamy for clear Understanding on Acrostic Speech. தங்கவேலு சின்னசாமி (talk) 22:24, 8 January 2021 (UTC)