Thursday, August 27, 2015

elocution contest

The school I went to as a little kid had a yearly elocution contest. The pupils in each class memorized a poem given to them by the teacher. They took turns reciting it, if they wished to participate. The two or three who did the best job got to recite a poem of their choice at a night-time performance in the auditorium with an audience of family and friends. Awards were distributed after the show.

This tradition must go back quite a ways. In Montgomery's book Anne of Green Gables, dating back to the 1800s, there is a chapter devoted to such a contest.

Our mother helped us memorize a poem or two. I got to participate once in the contest - second grade - and still remember all of 'Little Orphan Annie'. The high schoolers liked to recite dramatic works of romance and tragedy - not very different from what happens in Anne of Green Gables. Their performances sometimes brought tears to the audience.

Some people are natural performers - these contests may have been an entry into a career of entertaining or teaching others. The experience was scary for me, as perhaps performing was scary for other children. It did help me later in life when I still had stage fright giving research presentations to remember I had some experience, and had survived. What I appreciate the most about the elocution contest, though, was learning how to memorize; that people before television arrived had memorized poems to entertain each other; that words spoken or written centuries earlier can be carried through time and be brought to life again and again, person to person.

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