The Queer, the Quaint and the Quizzical

Palindromes

One of the most remarkable palindromes is the following:

SATOR AREPO TENET OPERA ROTAS.

Its distinguishing peculiarity is that the first letter of each successive word writes to spell the first word; the second letter of each the second word, and so on throughout; and the same will be found as precisely true upon reversal.

But the neatest and prettiest that has yet appeared comes from a highly cultivated lady who was attached to the court of Queen Elizabeth.

Having been banished from the court on suspicion of too great familiarity with a nobleman in high favor, the lady adopted this device — a moon covered by a cloud — and the following palindrome for a motto—

ABLATA AT ALBA. 

(Secluded but Pure.)

The merit of this kind of composition was never in any example so heightened by appropriateness and delicacy of sentiment.

Frank H. Stauffer, The Queer,the Quaint and the Quizzical (A Cabinet for the Curious), David Mckay, publisher, Philadelphia, 1882.

Photo: Pixabay/GDJ 

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