Example Of A Diamante Poem

How to Write a Diamante Poem

What is a Diamante?

A diamante – pronounced dee-uh-MAHN-tay – is an unrhymed vii-line poem. The starting time and ending lines are the shortest, while the lines in the middle are longer, giving diamante poems a diamond shape. "Diamante" is the Italian word for diamond, and so this poetic form is named for this diamond shape.

Believe it or not, the diamante was invented only 40 years agone. It was created past an American poet named Iris McClellan Tiedt in 1969, and has go very popular in schools.

Also known equally a "diamond poem" because of its shape, there are two different types of diamantes; synonym diamantes and antonym diamantes.

The Rules of a Diamante

In that location are just a few rules to writing a diamante:

Diamantes are seven lines long.
The first and concluding lines accept but one word.
The second and sixth lines have 2 words.
The 3rd and fifth lines have iii words.
And the 4th line has four words.
Lines 1, 4, and 7 have nouns.
Lines 2 and 6 have adjectives.
Lines 3 and 5 have verbs.

Here's an like shooting fish in a barrel way to visualize all three rules:

Noun
Adjective, Describing word
Verb, Verb, Verb
Noun, Noun, Noun, Noun
Verb, Verb, Verb
Adjective, Adjective
Noun

In a synonym diamante, the nouns at the beginning and end are two words that mean basically the same thing. In an antonym diamante, the two nouns are opposites. Here are a couple of examples:

Synonym Diamante

In this diamante, the words "Monsters" and "Creatures" mean the same matter, so they are synonyms.

Monsters
Evil, Spooky
Howling, Shrieking, Wailing
Ghosts, Vampires, Goblins, Witches
Flying, Scaring, Terrifying
Creepy, Crawly
Creatures

Antonym Diamante

In this diamante, you might say that the words "Cat" and "Canis familiaris" are opposites, or "antonyms," so this is an antonym diamante.

Cat
Gentle, Sleepy
Purring, Meowing, Scratching
Whiskers, Fur, Collar, Leash
Barking, Licking, Digging
Slobbery, Playful
Dog

Getting Started

To showtime writing a diamante, you starting time need to make up one's mind what thing you desire to write about. The reason you desire to pick a matter is that your first and final lines need to be nouns. In other words, your diamante volition be almost a noun, such equally a "pencil" or a "pizza," rather than near a verb, such as "jump" or an adjective like "smelly." An easy thing to write about is something you similar or something y'all run across around you.

Next, you'll want to decide whether yous want to write a synonym diamante or an antonym diamante. If you want to write a synonym diamante, you'll want to select another word that means the same thing as your field of study. If you are going to write an antonym diamante, cull a word that is its opposite.

For this example, I will show you how to write an antonym diamante about the "sun," and my 2d noun is "moon," since the sun and the moon can be considered opposites.

Once you've chosen your two nouns, take a slice of paper and brainstorm as many words as you tin can that have to do with each of them. For example, brand one column for each word and write down everything you can think of. Y'all'll desire adjectives (descriptive words), verbs (action words), and even more nouns. Your lists should look something like this:

Sun	Moon
Hot	Cold
Yellow	Silver
Fiery	Dark
Day	Still
Lite	Orbiting
Blinding	Shining
Exploding	Cute
Afar	Crescent
Nuclear

Don't worry if you have more than words than you demand. It's better to have too many words to choose from than non enough.

Finally, you lot'll desire to arrange your diamante, putting the synonyms or antonyms at the top and lesser, the adjectives adjacent, on lines 2 and 6, the verbs after that on lines 3 and 5, and lastly your boosted nouns on the center line.

In the pinnacle half of the poem – lines ii and 3 – your adjectives and verbs should be ones from your outset brainstorming column – words that have to do with line 1, similar this:

Sun
Fiery, Xanthous
Called-for, Blinding, Exploding

In the bottom half of the poem – lines 5 and 6 – your adjectives and verbs should be related to the substantive on line 7, similar this:

Shining, Orbiting, Reflecting
Cold, Silverish
Moon

On line 4, the line in the eye of the poem, the first two nouns should be related to the noun on line 1, and the last two nouns should be related to the noun on line vii, like this:

Flame, Light, Dark, Crescent

When you put everything together, you'll stop up with something like this:

Lord's day
Fiery, Yellow
Burning, Blinding, Exploding
Flame, Light, Nighttime, Crescent
Shining, Orbiting, Reflecting
Common cold, Silver
Moon

Things to Think

As you lot begin writing your own diamantes, here are the important things to retrieve:

Diamantes tin exist near anything
They are vii lines long
The word count is elementary: 1, 2, three, 4, 3, two, ane
Your lines should have: substantive, adjectives, verbs, nouns, verbs, adjectives, noun
Endeavour to "center" your poem on the page to give information technology a diamond shape
Nearly importantly, accept fun!