William Whitham is a quiet young man. Until you engage him in something he’s interested in, that is, and then the 16-year-old Bangor High School junior speaks eloquently and intelligently. Politics. Theater. Running for the cross-country team. His busy, diverse schedule. Poetry.
That last one won him a major distinction in Maine, when he was named the winner in the fourth annual Poetry Out Loud competition, held Saturday, March 7 at the Camden Opera House. He won with his recitation of Rudyard Kipling’s “The Secret of the Machine,” William Wordsworth’s “I Wandered, Lonely As a Cloud,” and a more contemporary poem by William Matthew titled “Mingus at the Showplace.”
“I liked all of them, but ‘Mingus’ was probably my favorite,” said Whitham. “I like the rhythm of it. It’s about jazz, so it’s really fun to recite. It’s really funny, too.”
Poetry Out Loud, now in its fourth year as a nationwide competition, began as a way for high school English teachers to engage students in learning about poetry. Students in schools across the nation pick one of the more than 600 poems available on www.poetryoutloud.org and memorize and recite them, first at competitions in their schools, and later at events held statewide.
Eventually, a winner from each state advances to the finals, held in April (National Poetry Month) in Washington, D.C. Whitham and his teacher, Emilie Manhart, will travel to D.C. at the end of April.
“Students are surprised by how much they actually like poetry, once it’s out of the classroom,” said Manhart, who, along with her fellow BHS English teacher Susan Thibedeau, organized the event. “It’s refreshing for them to just enjoy the poetry, and not analyze it. There’s really an incredibly positive reaction. People were cheering like it was a football [game], at the school competition.”
Maine’s Poetry Out Loud competition, sponsored by the Maine Arts Commission, featured students from Cumberland to Aroostook counties. Second runner-up Alice Hofgren, a student at Waterville Senior High School, recited Shakespeare’s “Sonnet CXVI: Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds.” Whitham was surprised to learn he was chosen by judges Annie Finch, Stuart Kestenbaum, Lee Sharkey and Dawn Potter, as the competition was so fierce.
“The other people who recited were really amazing. I couldn’t believe I won. I really love the fact that reciting poetry can lead to a trip to Washington, and maybe even a scholarship,” said Whitham, who is in the running for the grand national prize — a $25,000 college scholarship.
In his spare time, Whitham enjoys reading books by George Orwell and Noam Chomsky, and is active in Bangor High School theater, appearing in last year’s “A Flea In Her Ear” and in this year’s one-act play competition. His theatrical background was a boon to his poetry reciting skills, as he’s already good at memorization and interpretation.
As for college, Whitham has a little bit more time to decide where to go and what to study. Law? Politics? Chemistry? He doesn’t see himself going into poetry or studying English, but his love and respect for the medium has only increased after his win at Poetry Out Loud.
“I have a newfound respect for it,” he said.
