SPANISH FORT, Ala.— Students Thursday raised the roof  for Spanish Fort High School’s Poetry Out Loud competition.

Nineteen students recited poetry for a chance to compete in the regional competition Dec. 6.

Tenth-grader Natalie Carlisle won the competition with “How Do I Love Thee?” (Sonnet 43) by Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

“I just read through the poem and loved it,” Carlisle said, of choosing the piece. 

Her victory seemed to surprise.

“I was shocked when they called my name,” she said. “I heard a lot of very good poems today.”

Carlisle said she wasn’t very nervous while she recited her poem for the judges at the competition because she practiced it a lot.

Tenth-grader Mackenzie Davidson received the runner-up spot with her poem “Self-Portrait” by Robert Creeley.

“I wanted something a little different … with a lot of emotion,” Davidson said of her selection. “I thought I could portray this one nicely.”

Davidson said she loves public speaking so she didn’t have a problem reciting before the judges—particularly because she “practiced it constantly.”

Both students are in  Wendy Knight’s advanced English class and said that after three rounds of poetry recitation in her class, both Carlisle and Davidson were tied.

“It’s ironic that we both got it,” Carlisle said. “But it’s just so exciting.”

After the regional competition comes the state, then national, competition for the chance to win a $20,000 scholarship.

The state winner will receive an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington D.C. for the National Recitation Contest.

The regional competition will be held Dec. 6 at Five Rivers, Alabama’s Delta Resource Center. Both Carlisle and Davidson will attend, but only Carlisle will compete, according to P.T. Paul, graduate student in the English Department at the University of South Alabama, who’s facilitated the local program.

The state winner will receive an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington D.C. to participate in the national contest. Winner of the national competition will receive a $20,000 scholarship, according to Paul.

The national competition will be held April 27 and 28, 2009, in Washington, D.C., Paul said.

“The most important thing they accomplished today was getting up on that stage and making the effort, in spite of their fears, because now they know what it feels like and the next time it will be easier,” Paul said.

“As I tell them in the workshops, public speaking is a skill they can learn, a skill that will serve them well, no matter where they go in life.”