Contributor: Kristen Gardiner. Lesson ID: 10631
If you wrote a poem on opposite day, you'd create a diamante poem! Follow these steps to create your diamante poem about your favorite opposites, like day and night!
The images seem the same in many ways but differ in one important way.
Great! You found the important difference.
This type of difference is an opposite. You will use opposites to write a diamante poem.
Not only does a diamante poem use opposites, but it is also shaped like a diamond!
Get Started!
The first step in writing a diamante is understanding opposites and antonyms, which are words that are opposites.
The word opposite, when used as a noun, means a person, place, or thing that is completely different from another person, place, or thing.
Here are my friends, Ethan and Angie. They are brother and sister. Although Ethan is only two years older than Angie, he is much taller.
You already knew he is tall, while she is short. Angie is a girl, and Ethan is a boy. They are brother and sister; those are opposites, too.
Maybe you noticed that she is wearing a skirt, and he is wearing shorts. Ethan has on his boots, and Angie has on her sneakers. You may have also noticed that Ethan has stripes on his shorts, while Angie's skirt is solid.
All these things are opposites. Great work!
Practice finding more opposites.
cat | swim | hands |
Awesome job! Possible opposites are dog, walk, and feet.
While dog and feet are opposites, walk is an antonym. An antonym is a word that means the opposite of another word.
When contrasting people, places, and things, they are opposites. When talking about words with opposite meanings, those words are antonyms.
Talk About Feelings
When you talk about how you feel, on the inside and outside, you use describing words (adjectives and adverbs).
Since feeling words (such as happy, joyful, sick, itchy, and hot) are not nouns, use antonyms to show the opposite meaning.
Right. The one on the left is sad, while the one on the right is happy.
Think of some more antonym pairs or two words that mean the opposite of each other.
Going inside and getting an icy cold drink when it's hot outside is nice.
You are correct! The words inside and outside are antonyms too!e
Diamante Diamonds!
A diamante is a seven-line poem that takes the shape of a diamond when it is complete. There is a special format you need to follow so your poem takes the proper shape and tells your unique story about opposites.
The most important thing to remember is diamantes are poems about opposites.
Here is a short description of how to put together a diamante:
Here is the sequence for the seven lines of a diamante poem.
Line 1 | Noun A (opposite of Noun B in Line 7) | |
Line 2 | Two adjectives that describe Noun A. (Adjectives are words that describe nouns.) | |
Line 3 | Three strong action verbs ending in -ing that describe Noun A. | |
Line 4 | Two concrete nouns about Noun A and two about Noun B. (Concrete nouns are things that you can experience through your five senses: sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch.) | |
Line 5 | Three strong action verbs ending in -ing that describe Noun B. | |
Line 6 | Two adjectives that describe Noun B. | |
Line 7 | Noun B (opposite of Noun A in Line 1) |
Walk through the example below to see all the steps in the process.
This may be the most difficult step of the entire process. You may have one noun you would like to use but can't think of its opposite.
This is where a thesaurus helps! A thesaurus provides synonyms and antonyms of words. (Synonyms are similar words.) Thesaurus.com is a great resource.
This poem example will use water for Noun A and dirt for Noun B.
Water is wet, but wet is a boring word. Head back to Thesaurus.com to find a more interesting and vivid adjective.
Many words that have the same meaning as wet. This example poem will use the synonyms saturated and drenched to convey that water is, well, wet!
You could also choose more distinct adjectives to convey something different, like fun if you love water or scary if you do not.
This line may require a bit of brainstorming. You could write words on paper, use a graphic organizer like a bubble map, or click around Thesaurus.com for ideas.
This poem will use splashing, washing, and drinking — all things you can do with water.
A concrete noun is a person, place or thing — something, or someone you can perceive through one of your five senses. A concrete noun will never be an emotion or feeling, like love or sadness. Those words are abstract nouns.
This poem will use concrete nouns ocean and faucet for water. The concrete nouns mountain and garden are related to dirt. This is where the poem shifts from the first topic to its opposite!
Again, use any means of brainstorming that works best for you. This poem will use walking, building, and planting.
This poem will use the adjectives messy and muddy to describe dirt.
The poem is ready to be formatted and centered on the page. Centering makes the poem look like a diamond. Formatting refers to punctuation and capitalization. When you write your poem, follow this example.
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Head over to the Got It? section to practice some diamante concepts so you can write one on your own!