Announcing 2008 Poetry Contest Winners

The results of the 2008 Poetry Contest are in! This year we added a third category and asked students to respond to a new challenge—writing a poem based on one of three famous American paintings. This was in addition to requiring that poems adhere to a specific form.

The judges were delighted with the entries they received—more than 250 poems were submitted in all three categories. The creativity and discipline showed by students was truly inspiring.

In Category I, students ages 7 to 11 wrote blank verse poems of 15-20 lines based on The Stampede by Lightning by Frederic Remington, 1908.

For Category II, students ages 12 to 15 wrote blank verse poems of 20-25 lines based on View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm—The Oxbow by Thomas Cole, 1836.

Finally, in Category III, students ages 16 to 19 wrote blank verse poems of 25-30 lines based on Approaching a City by Edward Hopper, 1946.