Poetry came alive in Dodd Banquet Room on Jan. 11 during Darlington’s first-ever
Poetry Out Loud event, sponsored by the Upper School English department.
“The main reason we wanted to do this is that by and large we, as a culture, are deathly afraid of poetry,” said English teacher Thomas Moore (’99). “We all feel that it is too difficult to understand or simply not enjoyable as an art form. In my opinion, poetry is like anything else – the more you know about it, the easier it is to understand and the more you will enjoy it. The Poetry Out Loud program presented a great opportunity to bring poetry into the classroom in a manner that would offer the students a hands-on approach to the work."
More than 250 students participated in the event by memorizing and reciting a poem of their choice in class. The top 18 classroom winners were then selected to perform in front of their peers and a panel of judges on Jan. 11. Through this exercise, they were able to learn much more about the work than they would by simply reading it on a page.
“Memorization really allows the student to think about the words, to hear the inherent rhythm that most poems have and to appreciate poems in the way they should be – heard out loud,” Moore said. “I believe that the students who really put themselves into the experience were able to enjoy poetry on a whole different level, while gaining some self-confidence through the recitation process. It is very difficult to get up in front of a group of people and recite a poem from memory, but all the students in my classes did so with great results.”
All selections were chosen from the Poetry Out Loud Web site (
www.poetryoutloud.org).
Junior Jamie Vincent earned third place with her recitation of “aunt jemima” by Lucille Clifton and “The Tyger” by William Blake. “I looked into what the poems were about and how they connected with me,” she said, “and the words were easier to memorize because I understood why they were being said.”
Sophomore Aliya Smith won second with David Kirby’s “Broken Promises” and Heather McHugh’s “In Praise of Pain.” “I used to love to perform, but recently, I have gained this odd sense of stage fright. I felt that I needed to get over that, and a recitation in front of people would be a good step in the right direction,” she said. “Mr. Maddox helped me with voice inflection and facial expressions, and practicing in front of friends and faculty members helped me break through my comfort zone and drop a lot of the stress I had been carrying. Though I was nervous initially, I truly loved being able to perform in front of a crowd. A lot of my friends were there to support me, which helped me to get more comfortable with the audience. It was great to see a wide variety of students reciting and seeing which poems they had chosen. It kind of gives you an inside look at their own interests and thoughts.”
Junior Stefan Dill came in first with his recitation of Langston Hughes’ “As I Grew Older” and William Shakespeare’s “Sonnet XVII: How Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day.” Unfortunately, the competition only allows U.S. citizens to advance, and Dill is from Bermuda. Therefore, only Smith was eligible to compete in the regional competition at the Atlanta History Center on Feb. 28. She finished in the top six and will move on to the state competition on March 15 at the Georgia Public Broadcasting station in Atlanta. Dill will be allowed to perform is recitation at the state competition as well.
“This being the first year we have brought Poetry Out Loud to Darlington, I had no idea what to expect, but I was blown away,” Moore said. “The support from the student body and faculty was amazing. I hope we can continue this program and that students will become more and more excited both about the event and about poetry in general.”
