Poetry right out loud

by Sharlene Irete

sirete@recordcourier.com

Mia Young won first place in Saturday's Poetry Out Loud recitation contest and will advance to the state championship in Reno in March. Twelve Douglas County students competed in the Poetry Out Loud contest at 88 Cups Coffee & Tea in Minden Village on Saturday.

Lizzy McNeilly was second and Carson Costa took third place. The top three winners are Carson Valley Middle School ninth-grade students from Susan Van Doren's honors English class.

"The students had their poems memorized but also did dramatic interpretations of them," said Van Doren, who also teaches speech and debate classes. "Our current curriculum supports the dramatic interpretation so the students were able to practice and present their poems to the class."

Mia, 15, is the daughter of Raymond and Lisa Young of Minden. She read Edgar Allan Poe's "A Dream Within a Dream" at the Poetry Out Loud contest Saturday.

She said it was title of the poem that caught her eye as she was looking through the list of poems available for the contest.

"I like Poe a lot. We read him in school and I like to write poems on my own," she said.

Mia practiced her recitation at home with her grandfather, Ray Donoho.

"He used to be an entertainer on the M.S. Dixie. He had tips on using the microphone and was a good coach," she said. "This is the first time I ever did anything like this but was thinking of taking speech and debate at school."

Mia's grandfather is back at home in Reading, Calif., but he, along with her parents and aunt and uncle, were at 88 Cups to see her win the Poetry Out Loud contest Saturday.

She received a $50 Borders gift card and $50 for Target.

As winner of this competition, Mia advances to the state Poetry Out Loud contest in Reno on March 13. She hasn't decided what she will read then, but is busy memorizing three new poems.

The state champion receives $1,000, wins $2,000 for his or her school and competes for $50,000 in scholarships at the national contest in Washington, D.C., on April 28-29.

The fifth annual Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Contest, presented in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation, is part of a program that encourages high school students to learn about poetry through memorization, performance and competition. Information at www.nvartseducation.org

"A Dream Within a Dream" by Edgar Allan Poe

Take this kiss upon the brow!

And, in parting from you now,

Thus much let me avow -

You are not wrong, who deem

That my days have been a dream;

Yet if hope has flown away

In a night, or in a day,

In a vision, or in none,

Is it therefore the less gone?

All that we see or seem

Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar

Of a surf-tormented shore,

And I hold within my hand

Grains of the golden sand -

How few! yet how they creep

Through my fingers to the deep,

While I weep - while I weep!

O God! Can I not grasp

Them with a tighter clasp?

O God! can I not save

One from the pitiless wave?

Is all that we see or seem

But a dream within a dream?