Abecedarium (or Abecedarius): Poetic Forms
Poetic Form Fridays are made to share various poetic forms. This week, we look at the abecedarium (or abecedarius), an alphabetical acrostic form.
The rules for the abecedarium (or abecedarius) are pretty simple. It's an acrostic form that uses a different letter of the alphabet, in order, for the beginning of each line. Also, may also fall under the umbrella of alphabet poetry.
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Play with poetic forms!
Poetic forms are fun poetic games, and this digital guide collects more than 100 poetic forms, including more established poetic forms (like sestinas and sonnets) and newer invented forms (like golden shovels and fibs).
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Here's my attempt at an Abecedarium poem:
"Basic," by Robert Lee Brewer
An acrostic poem
begins with letters
creating structure and
determining how the poem
evolves over time. As
for an abecedarium, the
goal is to let the alphabet
hang out along the left and
inch down one letter at a time.
Just a simple trick shows poets
know how to say their ABCs and
lets readers anticipate the
multitude of possible words
needed to continue the
obligatory forced line breaks and
passage of one letter to the next.
Question the validity of the
rewards for this form if you wish;
still, it's popular for a reason.
The challenge of making it continue
under the constraints of the alphabet
validates many poets in their pursuit
with the understanding that ABC leads to
X
Y
Z.
Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Editor of Writer's Digest, which includes managing the content on WritersDigest.com and programming virtual conferences. He's the author of 40 Plot Twist Prompts for Writers: Writing Ideas for Bending Stories in New Directions, The Complete Guide of Poetic Forms: 100+ Poetic Form Definitions and Examples for Poets, Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming, and more. Also, he's the editor of Writer's Market, Poet's Market, and Guide to Literary Agents. Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.
