Abecedarius facts for kids

Transcription of Constantine of Preslav's Bulgarian abecedarius Азбучна молитва ("Alphabetical prayer"). In this work, the first letter of each verse, highlighted in bold, is part of a series of letters that are in alphabetical order (from top to bottom).

An abecedarius (also abecedary and abecedarian) is a special type of acrostic in which the first letter of every word, strophe or verse follows the order of the letters in the alphabet.

Alphabet poem

Invented by Paul West, a British-born American novelist, poet, and essayist, the alphabet poem is a stricter modern variation of the abecedarius. It consists of 13 lines, each consisting of two words, each word starting with a letter which follows the initial letter of the preceding word. West introduced the alphabet poem in his book Alphabet Poetry, a cycle of 26 poems, the first of which starts with AB and ends with YZ, the second one starting with BC and ending with ZA, and the last one starting with ZA and ending in XY. Due to the constraints, West allows himself few liberties here and there, as can be witnessed in this example: