BANGOR, Maine — For the second year, Bangor High School students took part in Poetry Out Loud, a national recitation project sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Poetry Foundation and the Maine Arts Commission. The Bangor High School competition was held on Jan. 30.
More than 250 students performed poems in their English classrooms with class winners moving on to the school level. Then more than 50 students performed the poems they memorized, creating stiff competition for the top 10 spots.
The 10 finalists were Kelsey DeRaps, performing “The Lost Land” by Eavan Boland; Olivia Dunton, “I Go Back to May 1937” by Sharon Olds; Conor Grogan, “Backdrop addresses cowboy” by Margaret Atwood; Zach Hamilton, “I Am!” by John Clare; Ali Hoy, “Snow Day” by Billy Collins; Ryan Larochelle, “Baseball” by Gail Mazur; Jenny Leach, “Memory as a Hearing Aid” by Tony Hoagland; Mary Grace Schley, “On Monsieur’s Departure” by Queen Elizabeth I; Cory Stephens, “Scary Movies” by Kim Addonizio; and Will Whitham, “The Secret of the Machines” by Rudyard Kipling.
The school winner was Will Whitham, who will recite at the Northern Maine Regional Competition at 3 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 12, at Minsky Hall, University of Maine. He will give “The Secret of the Machines” by Rudyard Kipling; “Mingus at the Showplace” by William Matthews and “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” by William Wordsworth. The event is open to the public.