An acrostic poem was written in Crawford Co, PA in 1851, to Mary M KELLISON of Cambridge Springs by a Mrs. Cordelia DAVIS from Washington, PA . I believe the idea was to compose a poem to an individual using each letter of that individuals full name as the start of a line. Thus one could find out the name of the individual the poem was written to / about by reading vertically the first letter of every line. Yesterdays poem would have been to FRANCIS C WAID - the writer of the article - but in this case the last four lines (TIOT) must have another meaning. Were well written acrostics a required school subject, part of a poetry class, or a desirable skill for the accomplished young ladies of the time? Ted Donovan Monroe, Wa