0
0
She waited for her turn, worrying about remembering all the words and delivering them well. People clap. She’s up. She walks toward the microphone, and, without any hesitation, she begins; line after line, rhyme after rhyme she recites her poem.
The NS Poetry Out Loud competition took place on Feb. 15 with five students competing. Junior Lucy Quinn received the first place award out of the five with freshman Liz Madsen as the first runner-up. Cody Howell, Cheyenne Ballard and William Bachman also showed their skill in the competition.
These five students each prepared two poems; some coming up with voices to go along with their poems, other choosing actions, while some used a combination of the two, but each had a unique way in which they presented their poems.
Sophomore Cheyenne Ballard was the first to recite the beautiful piece of literature she chose.
“I was the very first; it was very nerve-wracking. I got up there, and I started stuttering, and I forgot everything, or at least I thought I had,” Ballard said.
While presenting can be frightening, the competition also gives students the chance to gain a better understanding of poetry.
“North Sanpete High School students are doing more than just appreciating poetry when they prepare to present a poem in their English classes, each class member prepares to present a poem to his or her English class. This requires that they look very closely at the various techniques poets have used for hundreds of years,” said English teacher Kaylene Johnson.
Not only do students learn more about poetry, but they can have fun at the same time.
Quinn enjoys getting up and performing, and doing Poetry Out Loud was another opportunity for her to do just that, and to help keep poetry alive.
“I think poetry is becoming a lost art; there were six contestants, and only five of them showed,” Quinn said. “I think poetry is important; it is like a language, but this language is soon to be lost.”
There are a lot of different opinions about poetry: some hate it, some love it, some are indifferent, some ask what is poetry. Poems are not just words on a page but more of a language.
“Anyone, trying to make a point, can fill pages with ideas and explanations, but poetry is an art form, in which the poet has tried to say something significant using a very limited format and a precise vocabulary, so we cannot appreciate the insight and art in a poem unless we first study it enough to prepare to present it,” Johnson said.
This world has become a world of forgetting. People have forgotten languages, words, items, sometimes even people, and we do not want poetry to become one more beautiful thing this world forgets.
“I turned silences and nights into words. What was unutterable, I wrote down. I made the whirling world stand still,” wrote poet Arthur Rimbaud.
