Poetry Out Loud semi-finalists move on to next round

January 14, 2011

Twenty Academy high school students have qualified as semi-finalists eligible to move on to competing this week for the coveted honor of representing their grade level at the Poetry Out Loud recitation competition on February 2, in the Brady Center during a morning assembly.

The grade-level finalists from this competition will memorize a second poem for the February 2 school assembly competition. The winner of this last stage of competition will memorize a third poem in time for the March 12 state competition in Tallahassee. Last year’s winner was sophomore Sarah Davis, who has qualified again this year as a Grade 11 Semi-Finalist.

Classroom poetry recitation competitions, assigned in all English classes during the first two weeks of this semester, singled out the top performances for each grade. In grades 9 and 12, students faced stiff competition from their classmates, necessitating a second run-off during lunch to determine the top five slots for these two grades.

More information about the National Poetry Out Loud competition, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation, is available at http://poetryoutloud.org/.

Grade 9 Semi-Finalists

Sidney Brown Sonnet CXVI by William Shakespeare

Emily Dever “Falling: The Code” by Li-Young Lee

Kandall Bopp “Catch A Little Rhyme” by Eve Merriam

Alina Ossi “i carry your heart with me” by e.e. cummings

Virginia Barreda “Fairy Tale Logic” by A. E. Stallings

Megan Glogowski “Fairy Tale Logic” by A. E. Stallings

Grade 10 Semi-Finalists

Amanda Bell “Famous” by Naomi Shihab Nye

Lauren Collins “Barter” by Sara Teasdale

Michelle Ebrada “What Kind of Times Are These” by Adrienne Rich

Nora Johnson “The River of Bees” by W. S. Merwin