Why Read Down the Left Edge? Somebody Hid a Message There
By the BrainSnail editorial team. How these articles are written and checked, and how to tell us when one is wrong.
A poem whose first letters spell something when read downward has been used to sign work, to dedicate it, to smuggle criticism past censors and to get people sacked.
How the form works
The device takes the first letter of each line, or of each verse or paragraph, and arranges the text so that those letters in order spell a word, a name or a sentence. Variants take the last letters instead, or letters at a fixed position within each line, or build a message across the first letters of successive stanzas. The constraint is demanding, because every line must begin with a predetermined letter while still making sense and fitting the metre, which limits vocabulary sharply and is why acrostic verse frequently reads a little awkwardly.
What they have been used for
The purposes are more varied than a puzzle:
- •Signing a work, by spelling the author's name
- •Dedicating it, by spelling the name of a patron or a lover
- •Aiding memory, since the letters give the order of the lines
- •Structuring a text, as in alphabetical psalms
- •Concealing a message from an authority reading the surface
- •Insulting somebody in a document they will sign without noticing
The ancient religious versions
Several biblical texts are built on the device and the structure is invisible in translation. A number of psalms and the whole book of Lamentations run through the Hebrew alphabet, with each verse or section beginning with the next letter, and one psalm devotes eight consecutive verses to each of the twenty two letters. The purpose is generally taken to be a combination of memory aid, a signal of completeness suggesting the subject is covered from beginning to end, and formal beauty. An early Christian acrostic in Greek spells out a phrase whose initials form the word for fish, which is why that symbol was used, and is one of the oldest examples still recognised.
The famous literary examples
Several well-known works carry the device and the dedications are the most charming use of it. Lewis Carroll closed Through the Looking-Glass with a poem whose first letters spell the full name of the girl the Alice books were written for. Edgar Allan Poe wrote poems spelling the names of women he knew, in one case using a diagonal arrangement rather than the first letters. Ben Jonson opened a play with a verse argument spelling its title. The dedication of a Renaissance sonnet sequence has been argued over for centuries partly because of letters read down the margins, which shows how easily the device generates claims that cannot be settled.
The hidden insult
The device has repeatedly been used to smuggle a message past somebody who was not looking for one, and the consequences have been real. A California official resigned in 2009 after a veto message sent to the state legislature was found to spell an obscenity down the first letters of its paragraphs, which his office initially described as coincidence. A memorandum, a resignation letter and several newspaper columns have carried similar concealed messages, some acknowledged and some denied. Because the surface text reads normally, detection depends on somebody thinking to look, which is precisely what makes the device effective and why organisations now check formal documents for it.
The takeaway
Arranging text so the first letters read downward spell something forces every line to begin with a predetermined letter, which constrains vocabulary and metre considerably. The device signs work, dedicates it, aids memory and structures whole biblical books through the Hebrew alphabet. It also hides messages from readers not looking for them, which cost a California official his job in 2009.