(lighthearted music) - [Voiceover] Poetry Out Loud is a contest that allows students to learn about their literary heritage, master public speaking skills and build self-confidence.

Caroline Huber of Minot was North Dakota's 2016 Poetry Out Loud champion.

- "Half of my life is gone, "and I have let fear slip from me "and have not fulfilled the aspiration of my youth."

I love poetry, I like learning, especially history, everyone in my family's giant history nerds.

I really love drawing, I like painting and using charcoal, I'm an artsy fartsy person on the inside.

When I'm planning an art piece I try to put a bunch of meaning into it.

I'm coming up with a poem in my head and then trying to make that visual and put that on a canvas or piece of paper.

Poetry Out Loud is a competition where kids in high school are given the opportunity to recite poetry.

I'm in an AP language arts class and my teacher was really gung-ho about Poetry Out Loud.

She made it an assignment in our class to pick a poem, and once we were all done she just said, hey, how 'bout you guys go to the school competition too?

And then it just kind of grew from there and eventually I ended up at state.

There are a couple criteria in the poems.

You need to have, for state, three poems.

One is around 25 lines or less and one has to be written before the 20th century.

You pick the poems by going on the Poetry Out Loud website, they have a bunch of poems, you just pick whichever ones speak to you.

The judges have a number of different things they're looking for when they're scoring you.

They have to look for stuff that you've actually memorized the poem and your accuracy.

They look at your posture and body language and the dramatic appropriateness, how much feeling you put into the poem, and then showing that you understand the poem and then help the audience understand the poem.

"Don't take it personal, they said; "but I did, I took it all quite personal- "the breeze and the river and the color of the fields; "the price of grapefruit and stamps, "the wet hair of women in the rain- "And I cursed what hurt me "and I praised what gave me joy, "the most simple-minded of possible responses."

I wasn't nervous initially, but as I would see the line go down and it get closer to me and closer to my time to go, started to freak out, but once I'm actually up there ready to go, not really nervous, it's all basically muscle memory.

- [Voiceover] And now the champion for the North Dakota Poetry Out Loud 2016 competition Caroline Huber (applause) - [Caroline] I remember reading a book in second grade about this fifth grader who was a published poet, and I thought that was fascinating, that's what I wanted to do.

I used to write little, tiny poems and they weren't exactly great, but I just like how you can manipulate words to describe something that's so hard to actually tell other people.

Now I have more respect for how poetry changes when it's on the page versus how you say it because I would read these poems and have a clear idea, this is definitely what this poem means, and then when I would go to say it it would just have a life of it's own and I would discover a whole new meaning to it that was better than what I got from just reading it out loud.

"You knew I was coming for you, little one, "when the kettle jumped into the fire.

"Towels flapped on the hooks, "and the dog crept off, groaning, "to the deepest part of the woods.

"In the hackles of dry brush a thin laughter started up.

"Mother scolded the food warm and smooth in the pot "and called you to eat."

I think a lot of people would hear about Poetry Out Loud and decide that's not for them, that's too much work, it's not something they really wanna try, but I think everyone should at least try it once, at least the school competition because it's more fun than you would think.

You get to meet a bunch of people and just learn so much about poetry and examine your feelings, which are always complicated in high school, and it's just like any other story.

And it's also really good for making you get out of your comfort zone and learn how to be a better speaker.

I feel like it could help people become more comfortable in public speaking.

I'm graduating and I'm going to be going to the Naval Academy, I'm much more comfortable speaking in front of people now because of this.

So I feel like it can help me in my future in more ways than people would think, especially considering it's the military and you wouldn't associate that with poetry normally.

My second poem was Mezzo Cammin by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

That poem is kind of about realizing you're half way through with your life and you've done nothing you wanted to.

It was kind of a little weird for an 18 year old to pick, but even at this age I'm done with a lot of things and about to be moving on, becoming an adult, and you just stop every now and then and realize you don't really have all that much time left.

Mezzo Cammin by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

"Half of my life is gone, and I have let "The years slip from me and have not fulfilled "The aspiration of my youth, to build "some tower of song with lofty parapet.

"Not indolence, nor pleasure, nor the fret "Of restless passions that would not be stilled, "But sorrow, and a care that almost killed, "Kept me from what I may accomplish yet; "Though, half-way up the hill, I see the Past "Lying beneath me with its sounds and sights,- "A city in the twilight dim and vast, "With smoking roofs, soft bells, and gleaming lights,- "And hear above me on the autumnal blast "The cataract of Death far thundering from the heights."

(soft music) - [Voiceover] Prairie Mosaic is funded by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November fourth, 2008, the North Dakota Council on the Arts, and by the members of Prairie Public.