Poetry By Heart Competition

Posted on by aquinaslc

The spirit of Poetry By Heart is to encourage young people to explore for poetry, allowing them to develop their confidence with poetry in an enjoyable, accessible and engaging way.

How to get involved?

Firstly, check out the Poetry By Heart website and have a look through the poems they suggest for students ages 16+. There are 2 ways to enter :

To enter the Classic competition, pupils select TWO poems from the Poetry By
Heart website, one must be published before 1914, and one must be published
in or after 1914. Anything else will disqualify your entrant in the national
competition.

To enter the Freestyle celebration, pupils select ONE poem from the Poetry
By Heart website or another suitable source, from any time period. Suitable
sources are all printed poetry books; the websites of the Poetry Society or the
Poetry Foundation, the Poetry Archive or Children’s Poetry Archive, or CLPE;
or for GCSE and A Level pupils, their set text anthology or poetry collection.

Instructions for how to participate in the Poetry by Heart competition. Firstly it states that you should Choose poems.: Find a poem to learn from any of our timelines and showcase collections. Secondly, it says Learn poems by heart: With tips on how to memorise poems and how to polish them for performance. Thirdly, it reads Perform poems out loud: Share your poems aloud in a class, club or event of any shape or size, at school or college. next it says Enter the national competition: Do it your way - either the 1st poem Freestyle celebration or the 2nd poem Classic Championship. Next it says Come to the Grand Finale: Classic finalists and the best Freestylers perform on stage at Shakespeare's Glove, London. With guest tickets for schools taking part. Finally, it says that everything you need is here: Videos of past finalists, hundreds of classic and contemporary poems, and pupil and teach competition guides.
How to get involved

Get Inspired!

Poetry can be exciting, musical and moving, and often takes on a new life when it is experienced beyond the page. Listening to Slap Poetry or famous poets performing readings of their work can be really inspiring; as well as allowing those who are listening to experience poetry in a completely new way.

A screenshot example of the anthology available on the website with poets from 2010 to 2013. There are arrows that are evidence that the anthology is extensive. Poets such as Jacob Sam-La Rose, Tracey K. Smith, Tishani Doshi, Helen Mort and Jacob Polley are photographed above the titles of their poems
You can also explore their extensive anthology on the website. Read through and pick a poem that grabs your interest and share it with others.
An abstract painting of Seamus Heaney's portrait

The most important truth concerning the teaching of poetry is the value that attaches to a few poems intimately experienced and well remembered.

Seamus Heaney

What will the day look like?

You can relate the poem to an important event such as Disability History Month, Pride Month, Black History Month, or any significant event that may inspire you to read, recite and perform! Finalists of the competition will perform their chosen poems at The Globe Theatre in London before a panel of judges. To get a taste of the day, you can watch videos of the competition launch here. In the meantime, get reciting and enjoy learning poetry by heart!

A lady performing a poem at the competition launch of Poetry by Heart.

Join is in the library to explore our prolific poetry collection – or even for a space to recite and perform in the group study room!