 | | KEVIN GABOURY/CENTRAL OREGONIAN | | CCHS students step up to the mic Friday night for Poetry Out Loud. Anna Wilson took first place. |
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By Kevin Gaboury
In a night of Frost, Poe, Swift and Byron, Crook County High School students competed in Poetry Out Loud, a national recitation competition sponsored by the Oregon Arts Commission, at the Southwell Auditorium on Friday night.
This was the third time the contest has been held in Oregon, but the first time Crook County High School students have competed. The students each selected two poems (not their own), memorized them, and recited them on stage.
"I thought it went pretty well," said CCHS drama instructor Anita Hoffman. "It was pretty straightforward: they had to memorize two poems, they had to interpret them and they had to recite them. Overall, I thought that the talent was good. The poems they picked were great."
The winners on Friday were Anna Wilson, first place, who recited "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost and a Shakespearian sonnet; Ashley English, second place, who recited "A Satirical Elegy on the Death of a Late Famous General" by Jonathan Swift; and Jordan Cox, third place, who recited "Fire and Ice" by Robert Frost.
The judges of the competition were Brenda Moe, vice principal of CCHS; Shelby Case of the Central Oregonian; and Lexie Tombleson, CCHS French instructor.
First place winner Anna Wilson will be traveling to Salem for the state competition on March 15 where she will compete against 15 other schools from across Oregon. The state winners will fly to Washington D.C., where they will compete for $50,000 in prizes. The winner of the national competition will receive a $20,000 college scholarship.
Of the state competition, Wilson, a sophomore, said, "I'm pretty excited, and kind of nervous."
She worked for about two weeks memorizing the two poems for Friday's competition and will recite those in Salem, as well as a third, "A Satirical Elegy on the Death of a Late Famous General" by Jonathan Swift. |
