Clare Swanson ’18 Wins Poetry Out Loud Competition
February 07, 2018
Thetford Academy’s 9th annual Poetry Out Loud competition took place in the Martha Jane Rich Theater on Tuesday, Feb. 6. The competition is part of a nationwide contest that “encourages students to learn about great poetry through memorization and recitation.” It reaches 3 million students from 10,000 schools across the country.
Ten high school students memorized and recited poems of their choice, each incorporating their own style and interpretations into their recitations. TA community members, Jim Schley, Kay Morton and Martha Jane Rich, served as judges of the presentations, TA Librarian Kate Owen served as the accuracy judge, and TA English teacher, Melissa Thaxton was the prompter.
After all ten presentations, the judges deliberated and named William Bosco ’19 the runner up, and for the second year in a row, Clare Swanson ’18 was named the winner of the competition. Clare will move on to the State Semifinal competition on March 8, at the Barre Opera House. Best of luck to Clare.
The other participants were: Emma Bauer ’18, Nathan O’Donnell ’20, Jade Jamieson ’20, Morgan Gaffney ’20, Alex MacVeagh ’18, Skyra Coulter ’19, and Gabrielle Curtis ’18.