Read • Contests • Groups • Learn • Forums • Store • Help
 

List: Polyacrostics Palimpsests and Poetical Experiments

http://www.flickr.com/photos/albedo/106879061/

 

 

For each polyacrostic the text appears twice


I : plain text in black

II : Complete acrostic palimpsests highlighted without minor acrostics for the sake of clarity.

The second text is not readily readable as such because all punctuation and spacing is removed to show a letter by letter progression which will be seen to spell out certain phrases .  These palimpsests or vertical and/or diagonal sentences are to all intents invisible on reading except for the acrostic at the head of each line - and, occasionally at the end.

The object of the exercise is to introduce readers to the way in which language can flow in unexpected ways.

To my knowledge these experiments have not been duplicated in English poetry in the forms shown. See below for some partial examples

See below Edgar Allan Poe

Taking
1 st letter of 1st line
2 nd letter of 2nd line
3 rd letter of 3rd line

etc only 1 diagonal which reads SARAH ANNA LEWIS

"Seldom we find," says Solomon Don Dunce,
"Half an idea in the profoundest sonnet.
Through all the flimsy things we see at once
As easily as through a Naples bonnet —
Trash of all trash! — how can a lady don it ?
Yet heavier far than your Petrarchan stuff—
Owl-downy nonsense that the faintest puff
Twirls into trunk-paper the while you con it."
And, veritably, Sol is right enough.
The general Petrarchanities are arrant
Bubbles — ephemeral and so transparent —
But this is, now, — you may depend upon it —
Stable, opaque, immortal — all by dint
Of the dear names that lie concealed within 't.


Elizabethan examples also exist of internal and double diagonal acrostics

 

 

Our Life is Hid with Christ in God

 

 

My words and thoughts do both express this notion,

That Life hath with the sun a double motion.

The first Is straight, and our diurnal friend,

The other Hid and doth obliquely bend.

One life is wrapped In flesh, and tends to earth:

The other winds towards Him, whose happy birth

Taught me to live here so, That still one eye

Should aim and shoot at that which Is on high:

Quitting with daily labour all My pleasure,

To gain at harvest an eternal Treasure.

 

 

Colossians 3:3

 

HERBERT George 1593_1632

http://www.georgeherbert.org.uk/Docs/The%20Writer.pdf




Some formatted polyacrostics such as

Able Remeasured Sonnet

http://allpoetry.com/poem/2489619 are online.

 

Several poetical experiments are also included in this list, others may be found in the alliteration list.  Some poems are present in more than one list.

 

Enjoy ! 

1 - 86 of 86
1 - 86 of 86

Add a comment

    : Comment:

Comments

1 - 86 of 86

  • Cant force beloved
    December 10, 2008
    Edit | Reply
    Oh my goodness, How do you, never mind, Can't stand to try and figure out that brain. I applaud you Jonathan.

1 - 86 of 86