Creating Interesting Acrostic Poems
Issue 30 of Computer Newspaper, August 4, 2008. Internet Software Weekly. Internet Fun
Recently, acrostic poems have become quite popular. Acrostic poems are a type of mixed-form poetry. The ancients had two explanations for acrostic poems. One is that in regulated verse, the scenery and emotions implied in the first three couplets do not necessarily align with the theme until the last couplet reveals it clearly, which is called "hidden head".
The other explanation comes from Xu Shiceng, a scholar of the Ming Dynasty, in his work "Clear Differentiation of Poetry Forms," where he states: "An acrostic poem is one in which the first character of each line is hidden within the last character of the previous line." This means that the first character of each line is hidden in the last character of the preceding line. This takes advantage of the characteristic of Chinese characters being mostly compound characters, separating one "component" from the last character of the previous line to serve as the first character of the next line. Understanding this concept leads to what people refer to as "hidden-head disassembled-character poems" or "disassembled-character hidden-head poems." However, writing an acrostic poem is not an easy task and requires a deep literary foundation. If you just want to write one for fun, you can visit Kuaidian Network (http://ct.kdd.cc/), where you can easily create acrostic poems.
First, log into Kuaidian Network, then input the content of your acrostic poem in the text box. Next, choose whether you want a five-character or seven-character acrostic poem. Below, select whether you prioritize complex characters or rhyme. If you choose rhyme priority, homophonic characters will be allowed. After making your selection, click the "Generate Acrostic Poem" button, and it will automatically generate an acrostic poem using excellent lines from Tang poetry and Song lyrics. It looks quite interesting (as shown in the figure). If you feel that the system-generated acrostic poem isn't very rhyming, you can manually adjust it. Combining website auto-generation with manual modifications allows you to quickly create interesting acrostic poems. Sending them to your friends will surely impress them with your talent. (By Xiaoxin)