Poetry in the heart

Rowland has been practicing his poems since the beginning of the school year, both independently and in front of others, and has had an immense amount of help and feedback from his classmates, parents and teachers, including Patrick Martin, Lori Carrol, Destiny Flemming and Ben Ryski, his current English teacher. The preparation process has been a long one, consisting of practice performances for Ma...

Marshall said he feels excited and ready for his performance and that the entire process has been quite enjoyable. He won the Poetry Out Loud Competition at Wando, which brought him to the Regional Competition. Ninth grade Honors English teacher Patrick Martin applauds Rowland for his presence on stage as he says Marshall “exudes a sort of charisma that makes him stand out amongst the crowd” and th...

Marshall recites “Invictus” by William Ernest Henley with a powerful tone and intense hand motions. This was his poem for the first round of recitations, which set the stage for his next performance. Marshall sees poetry recitation as a fun extracurricular and says that his main reason for competing is that “you only live once, so you might as well do it, right?”

Marshall recites his second poem “The Windhover” by Gerard Manley Hopkins. Poetry has always been a big interest for Rowland. “I think it was always interesting to me how powerful words can be, and I think being in English 3 this year really amplified my liking for poems,” he said. Throughout the competition, Marshall simply hopes to have fun and he believes that his public speaking abilit...

Normally, only three contestants move on to the State Finals, but the judges made an exception to include one other participant. Four finalists, all from different schools in the Charleston region, all recited poems differed greatly but each had a lasting effect on the audience. Martin believes that Poetry Out Loud has “a remarkable way of helping students embrace artistic expression while also ...

Hannah Flint