Melissa Ford Wins 2010 Wahoo Poetry Out Loud Competition
Ford Advances to Feb. 20 Regionals at Omaha's Joslyn Art Museum
Launch the media gallery 1 playerThe third time was the charm for WHS Senior Melissa Ford, as she won the 2010 Poetry Out Loud School Championship.
Ford, last year’s runner-up to Eric Curran, used a strong, second-round recitation of Edgar Allan Poe’s “A Dream Within a Dream” to break open a tight contest and pull away from the competition.
Wahoo sophomore Savannah DeWine finished second, with Dayna Gulliksen capturing the third place trophy. Other finalists were Ben Brabec, Kristal Lindgren, Sadie Murren, and Brady Darnell.
Seventy WHS students competed this year at the classroom level, with the top seven advancing to the school championship. Each finalist recited two memorized poems for the judges. Poems must be selected from the Poetryoutloud.org website. Students are scored based upon the following criteria: physical presence, voice and articulation, appropriateness of dramatization, level of difficulty, evidence of understanding, accuracy, and their overall performance.
This year’s judges were Lois Fick, Ali Norris, David Privett, and Sue Heine.
Melissa Ford will now advance to regional competition in Omaha at the Joslyn Art Museum’s Abbott Lecture Hall. The regional competition will begin at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, February 20.
The top finishers at the regional competition will advance to the state finals at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, March 13 at the Sheldon Art Museum’s Abbott Auditorium in Lincoln.
The state winner advances to the national finals in Washington, D.C.
Below are the 2010 Wahoo finalists with the poems they recited in the finals.
Melissa Ford: "I Think I Should Have Loved You Presently" by Edna St. Vincent Millay, and "A Dream Within a Dream" by Edgar Allan Poe
Savannah DeWine: "The Star" by Ann Taylor, and "Do Not" by Stevie Smith
Dayna Gulliksen: "The Star" by Ann Taylor, and "Gitanjali 35" by Rabindranath Tagore
Ben Brabec: "Fire and Ice" Robert Frost, and "A Shropshire Lad II: Loveliest of Trees, The Cherry Now" by A. E. Housman
Cheyenne June: "The Orange" by Wendy Cope, and "A Red, Red Rose" Robert Burns
Kristal Lindgren: "Let It Be Forgotten" by Sara Teasdale, and "In the Desert" by Stephen Crane
Sadie Murren: "Alone" by Edgar Allan Poe, and "Sadie and Maud" by Gwendolyn Brooks
Brady Darnell: "Fire and Ice" by Robert Frost, and "In the Desert" by Stephen Crane