Poetry By Heart, founded in 2012 by former Poet Laureate Andrew Motion and Dr Julie Blake, is a national poetry recitation competition open to all schools and colleges in England. This year, over 128,000 young people chose, memorised, and performed a poem they love.
Finalists compete at the Grand Finale at Shakespeare’s Globe on 7 July, with 40 finalists in the Classic category and 15 schools in Freestyle, celebrating creativity and inclusion. Three schools will receive special awards.
Judges include poets Daljit Nagra, Patience Agbabi, Liz Berry, Valerie Bloom, Glyn Maxwell, and Jean Sprackland. We sat down with judges Daljit Nagra and Liz Berry.
Daljit, you’ve long championed poetry in schools. What personally persuaded you to lend your voice to Poetry By Heart, and what do you hope the young finalists will get from their involvement?
There is too much analysis of poetry in schools, too much using the head without the body. Poetry By Heart allows children and young people to connect with poems with their body as well as their brain, to feel the poem as it grows in them with each reading. Their performances before an audience, at Shakespeare’s Globe or local heats, show how the poem has blossomed in the body and come truly alive. After all, poems are not just words on a page, they need to come alive and Poetry By Heart is the best way I know of making them show how alive they really are.
Liz, much of your work explores the musicality of spoken language. How does hearing a poem recited from memory at Shakespeare’s Globe change your sense of its rhythm and emotional power?
I might have read a poem many times before, but when I hear it spoken from memory, in that extraordinary little jewel box of the Sam Wannamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare’s Globe, it always feels electric. There’s something so intimate and human about having a poem spoken aloud to you and new things are always revealed about the text.
There’s something very special about the age of the performers too, allowing them to open up things that an adult might not be able to. I can remember performances which bought tears to my eyes and those that gave me goosebumps (last year’s KS4 winner Nifemi who performed ‘Cousin Kate’ by Christine Rossetti did both at once) as well as funny, spellbinding performances (last year’s KS2 winner Iman!) which remind me how joyful poems can be when they’re lifted off the page and into our lives.
Daljit & Liz, when a student steps onto that Globe stage, what are the first qualities you’re listening and looking for that signal a winning performance?
Daljit: I like to feel the student is not acting but allowing the poem to speak through their body. That their facial and hand gestures are simply part of the requirements of making the poem be itself, that any movement of the body is a natural part that adds meaning to the poem. I’m even quite happy hearing a poem performed where the student just stands still and only their mouth moves – performances must add meaning and enable us to fully hear the poem.
Liz: I love seeing a student slip under the poem’s skin, that moment when they first forget their nerves and let the poem take over – that’s magical as it’s such a brave thing to do, getting up to perform. I like to hear students’ own natural voices and accents (always lovely!) and see that they enjoy the poem they’ve chosen (whether it be dark and dramatic or funny and light). Also: head up, look out and give your audience a little smile before you begin. I was taught this when I was a very nervous reader in my early days as a poet and it gives you a moment to relax yourself and make a little human connection with the audience before you step into the poem.
Daljit, you often write about identity and belonging. In judging this competition, how do you balance celebrating a performer’s unique voice with the need for fidelity to the poet’s text?
I love the different ways students deliver the poems because there is no one right way. We all have our own lives, in our own parts of the country, our own joys and struggles. All our experiences help us shape how we feel about the poem and this in turn shapes how we deliver the poem.
Liz, past competitors (now 18-25) still return to support the contest. What does that alumni loyalty say to you about the lasting value of learning a poem by heart, and how might it inform your feedback to this year’s finalists?
A poem by heart means a poem that lives in your heart, for always. That’s a beautiful thing to have. Poems can give us courage and reassurance, help us to make sense of things or just enjoy the nonsense. I always encourage students to choose a poem they really like and one they’d love to carry onwards with them. You never know when you might need that poem…