A Saint Mark’s High School senior is heading to the 2022 Poetry Out Loud National Semifinals in May.
Natalie Kim Ramos earned the title of 2022 Poetry Out Loud Delaware State Champion at the virtual state finals earlier this month.
Ramos recited William Wordsworths’ poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.” She notes that she chose the poem because she liked the imagery.
She says her first thought when she won was “I wasn’t expecting this.”
“I reached there with the help of my coach Ms. (Dana Kinsey and from Dr. (JoAnn) Balingit and Dr. (Traci) Currie (teaching artist) and their help in coaching me,” Ramos said.
As State champion, Ramos receives $200 and the opportunity to compete in the virtual national semifinals on Sunday, May 1, 2022.
For the virtual national semifinals, Ramos says she’ll be reciting three poems: “How to Triumph Like a Girl” by Ada Limon, “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” by William Wordsworth and “A Barred Owl” by Richard Wilbur.
Ramos says each of those three poems has a very different “feel.”
“They’re very different in the kind of feel that each of them has," Ramos said. "I chose “A Barred Owl” because I like the darkness of the end of the poem and how short it was. I chose “How to Triumph Like a Girl” because I like the humor that was in the poem and how casual it read through.”
The event will be live streamed here.
If Ramos wins this next round, she’ll take home $20,000 and a scholarship.
Delaware Public Media' s arts coverage is made possible, in part, by support from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.
