How to Write an Acrostic Poem

An acrostic poem is a poem in which the first letters of each line, read vertically, spell out a word. In this poem, the first letters of the lines spell out the name of my home town.

An Example

Huddersfield

An acrostic poem by Gale Barker

Huddersfield, a
Uniquely dramatic setting,
Dyed in the wool of industry
Dotted with Mangelwurzel *
Eccentrics, in whose
Recently extended university
Studies
Flourish.
Idyll for
Exhilarating
Literary
Dreams.

* Jake Mangelwurzel is a well-known Huddersfield eccentric.

How to Write Your Own Acrostic Poem

To write an acrostic poem of your own, begin by choosing the word that you would like to write your poem about. Write it vertically at the left hand side of the page, top down, for example:

L
O
V
E

Then use these letters to begin each line.

How Much Freedom Do You Have?

Acrostic poems are a form of constrained poetry - by making yourself begin each line with a particular letter, you are constraining or forcing yourself to write in a certain way. Even though acrostic poems don't have to rhyme, you're not just writing freely. You've got a format you have to stick to.

But each line can be as long or as short as you like. The ends of lines can rhyme or not rhyme, if you want. So you still have quite a lot of freedom to be creative.

Match Your Content to Your Word

Try to make the content of your poem relate to the word you've chosen and express something about it.

For example, to write a poem on the theme of love, start by thinking of lots of words connected with it, for example, Valentine, sweetheart, adoration, swoon, honey, romance etc.

Choose the word you want to use as your starting point, and write it at the left-hand side of the page, top to bottom.

Then write your poem, using these letters as the beginning of your lines.