Maryville student representing Tennessee in national poetry competition

MARYVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — A Maryville student was named the state champion of the 2024 Poetry Out Loud competition. Now, she is taking her talents to Washington D.C. to compete in the National Semifinals this week.

Since high school, Charlotte Bollschweiler has been training to read poetry like a poet.

“I feel like it’s definitely given me a greater appreciation for poetry as an art form and a style of communication,” Bollschweiler said.

The senior at Clayton-Bradley Academy will represent Tennessee at the Poetry Out Loud competition. She hopes to advance from the semifinals to the national finals, where she’ll recite “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” by William Wordsworth to compete for first place.

The poetry competition pulls students into the world and the mind of a poet.

“I choose a poem that I’m very drawn to, that I either connect with emotionally, or something that I love the way it sounds when I’m reading it out loud,” said Charlotte Bollschweiler.

Bollschweiler’s Poetry Out Loud coach is also a humanities teacher at school, but her most important title is mom. Sarah Bollschweiler is proud of her daughter’s grit and determination.

“Her poems this year have really pushed her. Her last one is “Crepuscule with Muriel.” If anyone wants to look that up, it’s extremely difficult to memorize and very fun to listen to. She put a lot of time and effort into researching and watching videos,” said Sarah Bollschweiler.

Each poem recitation will be judged on criteria, including physical presence, voice and articulation, and accuracy.

“I just have a Google Doc that I type out my poems like over and over and over again and then go back to the original and see if I missed anything. It’s just like repetition. Getting it in your brain,” said Charlotte Bollschweiler.

Poetry Out Loud partners with the National Endowment of the Arts and Poetry Foundation to bring the competition to 9th through 12th graders.

The program helps students master public speaking skills and build self-confidence.

“Everyone gets nervous, but the ones who are the most nervous are probably the ones who need it the most,” Sarah Bollschweiler said. “I see huge growth from the time someone is a freshman to a senior.”

Charlotte Bollschweiler hopes other students can learn to love poetry through the program.

“I think that my generation needs to, I don’t know, lean into it a bit more and to see poetry as not something like cheesy just about love or death but being able to actually understand it and interpret it and being able to write it is very important,” said Charlotte Bollschweiler.

In total, $50,000 in awards and school stipends will be distributed as part of the national finals, including a $20,000 grand prize for the national champion.

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