THE POPULARITY OF THE ACROSTIC.
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] San,—In your issue of April 7th you ask your readers to explain (if they can) the popularity of the Acrostic. May I venture, briefly, to state our own case ? We live quietly in the country and are glad of any outside interest or amusement that comes MIT way.
Having devoured the Spectator on Saturday, we read the Observer on Sunday. Now, about a year ago, the Observer published its first Acrostic. We were mildly intrigued, and guessed it. It was very easy, that first Acrostic ; we took it in our stride, so to speak. Next week we looked forward quite eagerly to the advent of the Observer with solution No. 1 and Acrostic No. 2, and I am afraid we have spent a good deal of time on Acrostics on most Sundays ever since.
On Sundays, in the country at any rate, there seems to be a time between lunch and tea—a good long time. In our house this has become " Acrostic Time." We do not solve in solitary silence ; it is a sociable occupation with us and seems to amuse our visitors as well as ourselves. It was a visitor, indeed, who devised what he was pleased to call the " inspirational " method of Acrostic solving. This was a plan by which the entire company concentrated simultaneously for two minutes upon a given " light," and I must say that it was sometimes almost miraculously successful.
Puzzling out Acrostics is a mild intellectual exercise and stimulant. In some ways it is the reverse of exacting. It requires no expensive apparatus ; it can be indulged in alone or in company, at home or abroad, by day or by night. On the other hand, there is something really engrossing and fascinating about the correct arrangement of the cleverly juggled and jumbled words.
The uninitiated are always contemptuous ; indeed, I am rather scornful of myself for liking Acrostics. But I do like them all the same !—I am, Sir, &c.,
Stonehill, Abingdon-on-Thames. GRACE JAMES.
Previous page
