Poetry Out Loud Held on Jan. 18 at RHS

The six POL contestants after the competition: from left, Callie Gillan, Corinne Medford, Emilly Goncalves Costa, Anabelle MacDonald, Nicole Cedrone and Maria Pala. Photo courtesy of Ms. Walsh

January 21, 2022

Nicole Cedrone, Veritas Editor-in-Chief

The Poetry Out Loud competition, a national competition in which students recite two poems, was held on January 18th at 7 pm in the RHS/RMS lecture hall.

Six contestants competed in the lecture hall on Tuesday night. These included Callie Gillan, Maria Pala, Emilly Goncalves Costa, Anabelle MacDonald, Corinne Medford, and Nicole Cedrone.

Each contestant had to memorize two poems and compete in two rounds of recitation for each of their poems. Mrs. Kendra Donovan is the English department head and the coordinator of POL.

There were three judges who all judged in 5 categories for each competitor.

The categories are: 1. Physical Presence. 2. Voice and Articulation. 3. Dramatic Appropriateness. 4. Evidence of Understanding. 5. Overall Performance.

Each of these three judges used the same scoresheets for each poem recited. There was also one Accuracy judge who only focused on errors/omissions.

Senior Callie Gillan was voted the winner by the judges and will be representing Rockland at the Regional Competition. Corinne Medford and Emilly Goncalves Costa placed 2nd and 3rd.

In past competitions, we have had nine students attend regionals, five students went to states, and two have gone to nationals in Washington DC.

Mrs. Amanda McDonough, an RHS English teacher, believes that this organization provides a great opportunity for students. She states, “The process of memorizing and reciting a poem is extremely challenging, but once a student has accomplished the task, he or she should feel pride in this accomplishment, an accomplishment many teachers would shy away from quite honestly.”

Watch the performances on WRPS Youtube.