Kyle Shreve is a sophomore here at THS, and was the Poetry Out Loud state champion of 2015 for Maryland. Kyle was introduced to poetry in November of Last year on an assignment from Mrs. Henry, from which he was chosen as the best performer. Kyle went from standing in front of his English class, to standing in front of a crowd in the auditorium of the school, to the MET Theater here in Frederick for the county competition. “People seemed to like it… and I thought I might have something here.” After blowing by the competition at counties, Kyle was off to Towson University for the regional competition. Yet again Kyle won it all and advanced to the state competition at John Hopkins University.

At the state competition, students recite 3 different poems, and are judged on a slew of different aspects of their performance, such as his or her physical appearance, articulation, dramatic appropriateness, and the poems themselves. This judging process can be very critical and subjective. Kyle’s 3 poems consisted of : Possible Answers to Prayer by Scott Cairns, Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold, and Song of the Powers by David Mason. After every recitation from every participant, Kyle Shreve was once again the highest scored, winning the Maryland Poetry Out Loud competition and heading to states at the Cisner Auditorium at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Shreve described Nationals as extremely social, with commingling from all over the country. Even though he didn’t win, Kyle walked away from Nationals with a new found confidence.

When I asked Kyle what his future might hold in poetry he just smiled and said “I’ll play it by ear… I’m not going to make any guarantees!”