Updated: Poetry Comes Alive at Burlington High School

Poetry came alive at last week when the school held its Poetry Out Loud finals.

Poetry Out Loud is a national competition sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation. For the competition, students across the country select a poem from the competition's list and try to bring it to life through recitation. Winners from each participating school can move onto state finals and finally to the National Finals in Washington, DC, this year being held on April 29.

Nine students competed in the final round of the Burlington High School Competition. Initially, all students in the school were tasked with learning a poem in their English classes and encouraged to participate in the competition. Semi-finals were held earlier this month with nearly 30 students vying to move onto the next stage.

The winner of the finals was junior Zaven Ovian, who declaimed Edgar Allen Poe's "A Dream Within a Dream" and "Scary Movies" by Kim Addonizio. This was Ovian's first trip to the Poetry Out Loud finals, though not to the stage. In the fall he played George Bailey, the lead, in the school's production of "." He will also perform in the upcoming production of "Beauty and the Beast."

The first runner-up was junior Melanie Canales. She presented Eavan Boland's "The Lost Land," and "Larkinesque" by Michael Ryan. Canales is an editor of Collab, BHS's literary magazine and is a member of Idle Hands, the BHS improv troupe.

Second runner-up was senior Ashley Brouillette, who recited "Domestic Violence" by Eavan Boland and William Shakespear's Sonnet CXVI "Let me not to the marriage of true minds." Brouillette has earned four letters as a varsity member of the Red Devils ice hockey team and will begin her fourth year of lacrosse in the Spring. She is a member of the Medical Careers Club and plans to pursue a career in nursing.

Also in the finals:

Senior Lauren Boyle, who recited Lawrence Ferkinghetti's "Dog" and Louis MacNeice's "Entirely."

Senior Evan Moore, who recited "Channel Firing" by Thomas Hardy and "Ice Bound" by Walter Bargen.

Senior Stacey Bezreh who recited "The Albatross" by Kate Bass and Allen Ginsberg's "A Supermarket in California."

Sophomore Katrina Gilstrap, who recited "Dirge Without Music" by Vincent Millay and Linda Pastran's "I Am Learning to Abandon the World."

Sophomore Chris Coe, who recited "Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold and Gary Soto's "Self-Inquiry Before the Job Interview."

Senior Jenna Frank, who recited "Chicago in December" by W.S. Di Piero and "And Soul" by Eavan Boland.

We have provided a video of the first round of the BHS Poetry Out Loud finals. It features the winner and two runner-ups.

Updated 2/24: We have added a second video showing the other finalists reading from the first round of the competition.