Poetry. Yuck.
What more can I say? This event is probably the most dreaded. And probably because it's the most useful in the real-world out of all the events (pshhh, what about memorizing a 500 digit number?? Now THAT's useful).
Anyways, you're given 15 minutes to study a previously unpublished poem. Usually one that speaks in the voice of Yoda ("Dream, I will, in thy evening tomorrow of" - yeah something atrocious like that). Not easy. And it's usually about balloons or flowers. Which makes it absolutely impossible.
So you get 15 minutes to remember as many lines as you can. That includes all punctuation too. If you miss a capitalization or punctuation mark, or even a "the" or an "and", you lose all the points for the whole line (and both of your hands). Keep in mind that the poems they have us memorize tend to capitalize random words just for the heck of it: "Ere the smelly Cheese, on thine nose; Wafted"
Like the Names & Faces events, somehow the high school kids tend to DESTROY this event. They always manage to memorize the entire poem, plus another one they randomly had stashed in their pocket just for good measure (as one does, you know...).
So that's encouraging. Just a few weeks ago, the entire Hershey High School broke the previously-unbroken-record-since-5-years-ago poetry record. Well, it was really only 3 kids, but still. I suspect foul play. No not really. I'm guessing they're given homework assignments that require them to memorize every reading assignment they are ever given. And they probably don't use textbooks because they have them all memorized. Maybe they just eat a lot of Hershey chocolate. I've read that dark chocolate is great for memory. Poetry memory only though. Number memory, no.
So this is the event where I predict all the high school kids will shoot into first place. Last year this event was not mandatory for the top 3 (which included me), so some of us never had to prepare for this event at all. But they reinstated it as mandatory. It is also now mandatory to recite the poem verbally on stage dressed as Abe Lincoln. Or Barbara Walters. Whichever.
Nah...that's a lie. You don't have to. But you might as well. Cuz it will look cooler.
Speed Cards event next....where the big boys (and/or girls) regain the lead.