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Unread 03-14-2021, 08:55 AM
Martin Elster Martin Elster is offline
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Location: Connecticut, USA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Roger Slater View Post
They're a lot more fun and easier to write than acrostics because you are not forced to start any line with any particular letter.
I’m not so sure about that because, whereas there are no rules in an acrostic, there are strict rules in a mesostic. Wikipedia explains it this way (I haven't formatted the poems, but you can visualize the layout):

Quote:
There are two types of mesostic: fifty percent and one hundred percent. (See also the example below.)

•In a fifty-percent mesostic, according to Andrew Culver (John Cage's assistant), "Between any two [capitalized] letters, you can't have the second [letter]."
•In a one-hundred-percent mesostic, "Between any two [capitalized] letters, you can't have either [letter]."

Below, an example of a one-hundred-percent mesostic:

KITCHEN

let us maKe
of thIs
modesT
plaCe
a room Holding
tons of lovE
(&, Naturally, much good food, too)


It qualifies as a one-hundred-percent mesostic because there is no k or i in the text between the capital K of line 1 and the capital I of line 2 –

let us maKe
of thIs


– no i or t between the capital I and T –

of thIs
modesT


– and so on.

Last edited by Martin Elster; 03-14-2021 at 08:59 AM.
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