One commenter on my Design Observer piece about sentence diagramming was a young Boston artist, Kelly Sherman, some of whose art utilizes sentence diagrams. She doesn't torture the sentences as much as tickle the poetry out of them:

In her comment she wrote:

I'm shocked—and thrilled—to see so many people with something to say about sentence diagrams. I have been using the form in my artwork for a few years now and have come to learn that people either adore sentence diagrams or despise them. I think the many posts make that quite clear. Needless to say I loved them! Now I especially like using the diagram form to reiterate or, better yet, subvert the meaning of the sentence being diagrammed. If you're interested: www.kellysherman.net/sentencediagrams

Her diagrams are beautiful -- the one I've posted here (with her permission) doesn't render very well, so I'd encourage you to look at them on her site.