Acrostic

The 3rd-century BC didactic poet Aratus, who was much admired and imitated by Cicero, Virgil and other Latin writers, appears to have started a fashion for using acrostics.

Among others, in Eclogue 9 the acrostic VNDIS 'in the waves' (lines 34–38) immediately precedes the words quis est nam ludus in undis?

[10] In Aeneid 7.601–4, a passage which mentions Mars and war, describing the custom of opening the gates of the Temple of Janus, the name MARS (the god of war) appears in acrostic form as well as in the text as follows:[11] In Georgics 1 429–433, next to a passage which contains the words namque is certissimus auctor 'for he is the most certain author', the double-letter reverse acrostic MA VE PV (i.e. Publius Vergilius Maro) is found on alternate lines.

[13] The discoverer of this acrostic, Neil Adkin, points out that the same word πείθει occurs at more or less exactly the same line-numbers in a repeated line describing how Odysseus’ wife Penelope deceived the suitors in Odyssey 2.106 and 24.141.

The acrostic OTIA also occurs in Ovid, Metamorphoses 15.478–81, a passage describing the return of the peace-loving king Numa Pompilius to Rome.

Each of these has an acrostic of the name of the play, for example: The 3rd century AD poet Commodian wrote a series of 80 short poems on Christian themes called Instructiones.

Each of these is fully acrostic (with the exception of poem 60, where the initial letters are in alphabetical order), starting with PRAEFATIO ‘preface’ and INDIGNATIO DEI ‘the wrath of God’.

[20] There is an acrostic secreted in the Dutch national anthem Wilhelmus[21] (William): the first letters of its fifteen stanzas spell WILLEM VAN NASSOV.

This title also returned in the 2010 speech from the throne, during the Dutch State Opening of Parliament, whose first 15 lines also formed WILLEM VAN NASSOV.

Vladimir Nabokov's short story "The Vane Sisters" is known for its acrostic final paragraph, which contains a message from beyond the grave.

In 1939 Rolfe Humphries received a lifelong ban from contributing to Poetry magazine after he penned and attempted to publish "a poem containing a concealed scurrilous phrase aimed at a well-known person", namely Nicholas Murray Butler.

The poem, entitled "An ode for a Phi Beta Kappa affair", was in unrhymed iambic pentameter, contained one classical reference per line, and ran as follows: Niobe's daughters yearn to the womb again, Ionians bright and fair, to the chill stone; Chaos in cry, Actaeon's angry pack, Hounds of Molossus, shaggy wolves driven

Over Ampsanctus' vale and Pentheus' glade, Laelaps and Ladon, Dromas, Canace, As these in fury harry brake and hill So the great dogs of evil bay the world.

Because, through all the blight of human woe, Under Robigo's rust, and Clotho's shears, The mind of man still keeps its argosies, Lacedaemonian Helen wakes her tower,

Echo replies, and lamentation loud Reverberates from Thrace to Delos Isle; Itylus grieves, for whom the nightingale Sweetly as ever tunes her Daulian strain.

How shall men loiter when the great moon shines Opaque upon the sail, and Argive seas Rear like blue dolphins their cerulean curves?

Samos is fallen, Lesbos streams with fire, Etna in rage, Canopus cold in hate, Summon the Orphic bard to stranger dreams.

On 19 August 2017, the members of president Donald Trump's Committee on Arts and Humanities resigned in protest over his response to the Unite the Right rally incident in Charlottesville, Virginia.

[29] In the video game Zork the first letters of sentences in a prayer spelled "Odysseus" which was a possible solution to a Cyclops encounter in another room.

bow down thy blessed ears To hear my Plaint; and let thine eyes which keep Continual watch behold a Sinner weep: Let not, O God my God my Sins, tho' great, And numberless, between thy Mercy's-Seat And my poor Soul have place; since we are taught, [Thou] Lord, remember'st thyne, if Thou art sought.

Lastly, O God, my course direct and guide, In Death defend me, that I never slide; And at Doomsday let me be rais'd again, To live with thee sweet Jesus say, Amen.