Odes, ballads and sonnets are all old forms of poetry writing, pertaining to many centuries ago. However, one form of poetry that originated quite recently by an American poet named Iris McClellan Tiedt in 1969 is known as Diamanté poetry, or a diamond poem.
Called so because of its unique shape, it is classified into two types – an Antonym Diamanté poem (the first and last words have opposite meanings) and a Synonym Diamanté poem (the first and last words have similar meanings). It comprises of seven lines with the first and last line containing one word each. The second, third, fifth and sixth lines have two words and the fourth line is the longest, containing four words. Lines 1, 4 and 7 contain nouns. Lines 2 and 6 have adjectives and lines 3 and 5 have verbs. As you can see, this form of poetry has a very precise format but without the rules of proper grammar and conjunctions. Hence, it has rapidly been gaining popularity in schools.
I found out about it in an online competition. Excited to explore this type of poetry, I eagerly began researching, diving deep into it. Before I could second-guess my poem, it was posted. To my surprise, I won second place for my piece, which is posted below. It was completely unexpected, but it just goes to show you, competition or not, always take on any opportunity to try new experiences because you never know where you can go. Certainly, it took me three drafts to nail it, but I guess it was all worth it in the end.
–Paridhi Bhatia
10G
