Poetry Out Loud

Recently, all 9th graders participated in a Poetry Out Loud classroom competition.

Poetry Out Loud is a nationwide competition that celebrates poetry in its original form: recitation.  Students across the country read and analyze poems from a POL anthology, and then select a poem they feel connected to that they feel they can express to a larger audience.  The competition begins at the classroom level, then progresses to a school-wide competition, followed by regionals, states, and the national finals.  Recently, senior Dyer Rhoads won the state competition and traveled to Washington, D.C. for nationals.

Throughout the fall, all ninth graders and the Poetry Out Loud activity group memorized and practiced their poems, then competed in a classroom competition. Two students with the highest score from each class will move on to a schoolwide competition during the Upper School’s January 8th assembly.

 2014 POL winners and their poems

Andrew Clark “A Poison Tree” by William Blake

Hana Delaney  “Caged Bird” by Maya Angelou

Cole Gagnon  “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” by Wallace Stevens

Leeza Kopaeva  “Caged Bird” by Maya Angelou

Nick Hagler   “Anthem for Doomed Youth” by Wilfred Owen

Dana Hirschhorn “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost

Laura MacLean  “The Listeners” by Walter de La Mare

Zander Martin  “Across the Bay” by Donald Davie

Riley Mayes  “In a London Drawing Room” by George Eliot

Abdirahman Mohamed “Medusa” by Louise Bogan