It is called acrostic to that linguistic composition, whether poetic or not, whose initial, central or final letters, together with others arranged vertically, form a word or phrase. By default, this new word formed is called an acrostic. This type of poem was very popular during literary times that were characterized by elaborateness, as in the baroque style.
Currently, acrostics are considered as ingenious forms of entertainment, similar to crosswords, sudoku and other games of creative thinking; it is common to find them in magazines, weeklies, newspapers and brochures.
According to historical inquiries about this practice, acrostics were made, for the first time, by the Castilian poets. These transmitted their knowledge to the Provencal poets, (who at one time were considered the first) group that was in charge of making this style popular. From then on, it only took a little ingenuity and talent to make an acronym. Some artists preferred to place the letters that make up the words at the beginning, others in the middle of the text, and many more at the end; however, the predominant format was the former. It is known that, on some occasions, this was used to enrich the poem or, well, to leave some additional messages.
Throughout history, a considerable number of popular acronyms have emerged, such as "El bachiller", which can be read in the prologue of "La Celestina", a novel by Fernando de Rojas, entitled in that way because it is the phrase that produces with the first letters of the poem. Luis Tovar also owns one of these precious pieces: a poem whose purpose was to spell "Francisca", but ends in "Francyna", and resolves to include, in the middle of creation, other names such as Eloísa, Ana, Guiomar, Leonor, Blanca, Isabel, Elena and María.
