Acrostrichs
[This page by Madeleine Brook]
G.
VV.
I.
G.VV.I.C.I.VV.G.
I.
VV.
G.
VV.
G.
I.
VV.G.I.C.I.G.VV.
I.
G.
VV.
Gottes VVort Ist Christus Iesus VVarer Gott.
Wird wie Töpff zerschmeissen die Gottlose Rott /
Vnd alle seine feinde machen zu spott.
VVarer Gott Iesus Christus Ist Gottes VVort.
War im anfang bey Gott und bleibt immerfort /
Sein Nahm sey gebenedeyet hie und dort.
God’s Word Is Christ Jesus True God
Will smash the Godless rabble like a crock
And all his enemies he shall mock.
True God Jesus Christ Is God’s Word
Was with God in the Beginning and ever shall be
Praise be his name here and universally.
Source (with kind permission): http://wortblume.de/dichterinnen/hkreuz02.htm
Hoyers also wrote a number of short poems, often in the form of an acrostich, as seen here. Acrostich poems incorporate certain letters or words and work them so that they provide a significant message. They frequently also serve as a mnemonic. Here, Hoyers creates two images of a cross shaped from the same letters arranged in horizontal and vertical patterns which in their symmetry are approximately the inverse of each other. These are the beginning letters of each word in the respective first lines of the two verses below, which declare a fundamental tenet of Hoyer’s faith: the centrality of Christ. Christ’s role as mediator between and embodiment of Holy Scripture and God is visualised in the unchanging central position of the letter ‘C’ and the word ‘Christus’ in the acrostich image and poem. The two crosses serve as prompts to the reader to recite the simple verses (11 syllables, AAA BBB rhyme) as they meditate on the image.