Poetry Out Loud 2006: Reflections from Students
Meredith Smith, 2nd place winner
Robert Jones, 3rd place winner
Ohio students who participated in the Poetry Out Loud state finals say that memorizing and reciting the poems deepened their appreciation of language and love of poetry. Some say they gained insight into their own writing. All plan to continue reading and memorizing poems.
According to poet and educator Sandra Miller, who served as Ohio's Poetry Out Loud coordinator, watching high school students "form such close relationships with works of poetry" was a wonderful, unforgettable experience: "They connected to the poems so deeply and in so many different ways," says Miller.
Casey Osman.
Four students spoke with Links & Threads about this challenging and transformative experience.
John Lamotte
"Taking over what the poet was going through" was how Casey Osman described his experience in reading and rereading a Paul Laurence Dunbar poem. "Passion comes to the fore and you're standing in the shoes of the poet for a brief moment in time."
John Lamotte chose not to focus on the undertones of life and death often noted in the Robert Frost poem he chose. Rather he sought to capture the simple emotions of a man "caught off guard by beauty" as he looked at the forest on a snowy night.
Emily Astorian
Emily Astorian, who plans to study psychiatry, noticed that her changing moods affected how she saw and recited the poems on different days. This observation, she says, "helped me understand better how the human brain works."
Jackson Hille, 1st place winner
Jackson Hille, who hopes to act on the Shakespearean stage, won by capturing both the humor and the subtle sadness of "Forgetfulness" by Billy Collins. "I focused on how I felt when I read it," says Jackson. "It had to be me saying it."
This article was published in May 2006, Volume 2, Issue 3.
