High school students recited three poems they’d memorized for the Poetry Out Loud finals last month, reports Education Week.
“This contest emphasizes the pleasures and the sounds of poetry,” said Stephen Young, the Poetry Foundation’s program director. “It requires no less analytical skill than writing a paper to decide how you’re going to recite a particular line or what intonation is called-for here, what emphasis do you want there.”
Samara Elán Huggins, the Georgia state champion, was the winner. “The poet has to use the least amount of words possible and follow a structure,” she said in an interview. “That makes every word even more important, every piece of punctuation that more necessary.”