Nearly 200 Whitefish High School students – 184, to be exact – gave a go at bringing the lyrics of famous poems to life by participating in the Poetry Out Loud competition.  

Poetry Out Loud is a national competition created by the National Endowment for the Arts and is hosted in partnership with the Poetry Foundation and the Montana Arts Council. 

The competition helps students master their public speaking skills while connecting to history’s most impactful lyrics. Students must memorize and recite from a pre-selected anthology that is updated every summer.  

Teachers were encouraged to invite students to participate at the classroom level. 

From there, students advanced to a school-wide competition which was held at the Black Box in Whitefish High School on Jan. 13, where other students came to listen and support their friends. 

The four winners from Whitefish’s school-wide competition were:  

First - Scarlet Burke, "When I Am Asked" by Lisel Mueller; second - Jake Dunker, "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" by Dylan Thomas; third - Samantha Keim, "Invictus" by William Ernest Henley; and in fourth was Ethan Amick, "I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud" by William Wordsworth.  

These four students will be competing in regionals at FVCC on Feb. 6 from 1-3 p.m.  

The regional competition is based on geographic location rather than school size.  

The statewide competition will be held in Helena in March, followed by nationals in Washington, D.C.