Acrostic Poems

(poetry > types of poems > acrostic poems)

Acrostic poems are poems that spell out a word down the side of the poem. Each letter of the word can begin a new line of the poem. Alternatively, the word can also be spelled by the final letters of each line. Acrostic poetry can be a great way to get young children to write poems.

Acrostic poetry have been around for centuries. The Wikipedia entry for "Acrostic" notes that acrostics can be found in the Bible and in medieval literature.

Example

Here is a simple example of an acrostic poem:

Frog Poem
by Writers Write, Inc.

Fancy jumping,
Rapid swimming,
Outstanding hopping,
Googly eyes.

You can see the "Frog" poem spells frog down the side.

Acrostic Poem Resources

Here is a collection of several good acrostic poem resources: