EHS students to recite in Poetry Out Loud Competition

Trinity Herring, Hi-Gusher Staff

Two El Dorado High School students are participating in the Poetry Out Loud Competition to be held at Parkers Chapel High School on Wednesday.

EHS students Breanna Kilgore and Hannia Valero are participating in the competition.

They will each be performing two previously written poems.

Kilgore’s poems are “April Midnight” by Arthur Symons and “On the Death of Anne Bronte” by Charlotte Bronte. She chose “April Midnight” because of her love of love poems.

On her choice of “On the Death of Anne Bronte,” and poet Charlotte Bronte, Kilgore said, “I wanted experience her life through her work and poetry to gain a better understanding.”

Valero’s poem’s are “The Wish By a Young Lady” by Laetitia Pilkington, and “A Song in the Front Yard” by Gwendolyn Brooks.

Valero said she chose these poems because the topics appealed to her.

“I heard about the competition while I did a theater camp in the summer from one of the Poetry Out Loud coaches,” Kilgore said. The grand prize of $20,000 if she won the national level would help her pay for college, she explained.

Valero heard about the competition through Jennifer Murphy, the EHS English instructional facilitator.

“I decided to do this competition because I felt like it would give some additions and experience to my performance repertoire,” Valero said.

They will both compete locally, with the opportunity to move to the state level competition. The winner at the state level will move on to the National Competition to compete for the grand prize.