At Flint Hill School, the late October to early November period marks Poetry Out Loud season. Poetry Out Loud is a national arts education program and competition that encourages high school students to discover a love for poetry through memorization, performance, and public speaking. First, students participate in an in-class competition. After this, the selected students from each English class move on to a school-wide competition. Winners will advance to the next round, where they’ll compete to secure a spot in the regional competition.
The first, and most important step of the competition is selecting a poem. Students can complete this task during class by visiting the Poetry Out Loud website, which lists all the possible poems that can be chosen. They are conveniently organized by themes, encompassing everything from nature to love or identity.
Sophomore Beatrice Huber ‘28 shares that she chose the poem “Song for the People” by Ellen Watkins because she “wanted to do a poem that emphasized the power of art, music, and literature.” Additionally, she loved both how the poem flowed and the overarching meaning and power of it. Beatrice won her in-class competition in Dr. Christine Allred’s English II Honors class and did an incredible job reciting her poem in the school-wide competition.
I attended the school-wide competition as a guest, and I was blown away by Flint Hill’s students’ talent for performance and public speaking. Not only were they able to flawlessly recite each poem, but they also had the power to convey the deep emotion and underlying meaning behind their poems. It is safe to say that the students put hours into perfecting their performance.
After speaking with several students, they collectively agreed that the biggest challenge of Poetry Out Loud was finding a balance between combating stage fright and still conveying their poem’s message. However, in the end, students felt that the experience was an amazing opportunity for vital growth, and they found a new confidence in their public speaking skills after Poetry Out Loud.
Despite being a relatively new tradition, Poetry Out Loud is widely loved among students. It offers countless benefits, such as self-reflection, expression of emotion, and boosted confidence. Not only do students learn a lot from memorizing and reciting their own poems, but they also learn from each other through their recitations, as poetry can offer new perspectives on the world around us and a further understanding of the experiences and emotions of others.
