Diamante Poems
By Brooke Clark and Michael Stanton
What is a diamante poem?
The Structure of the Diamante Poem
A diamante poem is made up of 7 lines using a set structure:
Line 1: Beginning subject
Line 2: Two describing words about line 1
Line 3: Three doing words about line 1
Line 4: A short phrase about line 1, a short phrase about line 7
Line 5: Three doing words about line 7
Line 6: Two describing words about line 7
Line 7: End subject
Puppy
Music
Life
Beach
Beach
Beautiful, sandy
amazing, cool, refreshing,
fun, outstanding, crazy, crowded
relaxing, happy, life
stress less, merry
hopeful
Fire
Fire
red, burning
non-breezy, relaxing, big
destroying, cool, catching, blazing
blue, cold, calm
refreshing, giant
water
Storm
Storm
noisy, dark
windy, rainy, cloudy
scary, enormous, thunder, lightning
peaceful, gold, colorful
little rain, long
rainbow
Plants
Plants
green, pretty
red, blue, yellow
purple, amazing, outstanding, beautiful
ugly, rotten, tall
frightening, nasty
weeds
Tree
Tree
tall, long
green, yellow, red
brown, thick, outstanding, cool
little, fat, ugly
root, hollow
stump
Egg
Egg
small, round
shell, yolk, shell
cracked, nest, white, tan
big, feathers, chicken
lovely, fast
yellow
The history of Diamante poems
A diamante – (pronounced dee-uh-MAHN-tay) – is an un-rhymed seven-line poem. The beginning 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, so this poetic form is named for this diamond shape. Believe it or not, the diamante was invented just 40 years ago. It was created by an American poet named Iris McClellan in 1969, and has become very popular in schools.