National Poetry Month: The Diamante

For people who are intimidated by writing poetry, the diamante poem can be a great format to try first. The diamante is a relatively new form – it was invented in 1969 by poet Iris McClellan Tiedt – that follows a very precise formula. It’s easy to follow, but a working knowledge of parts of speech is required.

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A diamante is seven lines long and shaped like a diamond. In fact, “diamante” means “diamond” in Italian! Each line is made up of words from a particular part of speech:

Noun

Adjective, Adjective,

Verb, Verb, Verb,

Noun, Noun, Noun, Noun

Verb, Verb, Verb,

Adjective, Adjective,

Noun

And that’s it! When writing a diamante, though, there’s one more choice to make. Some diamantes are called synonym diamantes; this means that the first noun and the second noun are different words for the same thing. For example, here’s a synonym diamante we wrote about brothers and sisters:

Siblings

Obnoxious, Helpful

Sharing, Arguing, Laughing

Brother, Sister, Enemy, Companion

Teasing, Tickling, Tattling

Irritating, Loveable

Friends

Siblings are sort of like friends (at least sometimes…), so that’s why this is considered a synonym diamante. On the other hand, some diamantes start and end with words that have different meanings or associations. As you can probably guess, these are known as antonym diamantes. Here’s an example:

Lake

Refreshing, Calm

Sparkling, Flashing, Lapping

Lily pads, Ripples, Seashells, Waves

Roaring, Crashing, Rolling

Salty, Endless

Ocean

Diamantes are great for kids. Let them pick their own topics, or challenge them to tie their poems into something they’re learning by assigning them to start and finish with words like “Tom” and “Huck,” “element” and “compound,” “cell” and “virus,” “democracy” and “monarchy,” etc. This is a wonderful poetic form – a true gem!