2009 Guidelines
Submission Dates: May 1 through June 1 2009!
Entries received before May 1 or postmarked after June 1 will be sent back or discarded.
What
Category 1
“It is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not to deserve them.”
—Mark Twain
Category 2
“Love is a great beautifier.”
—Louisa May Alcott
Category 3
“Nothing that you have not given away will ever be really yours.”
—C.S. Lewis
We try to choose themes that will leave a lot of room for students’ imagination and interpretation, without us dictating the response. We want students to come up with their own ideas of what best portrays the given quote, without us dictating the response.
Students do not have to actually include the quote in their poem. The quote is meant to be the inspiration and theme behind whatever images or story the students decide to portray.
We hope that students will come up with many imaginative ideas to fit the theme. Our judges love it when a student comes up with something they had not thought of before.
Who
Category 1: Homeschoolers ages 7 to 10 as of May 1, 2009.
Category 2: Homeschoolers ages 11 to 14 as of May 1, 2009.
Category 3: Homeschoolers ages 15 to 19 as of May 1, 2009.
For the purposes of this contest, an eligible student must have been home educated in the past year and received a majority of his or her education in the past year through home education.
Format and Submissions
- Poems must be the work of the student entering the contest. No assistance of other parties, including but not limited to editing or proof reading, is permissible.
- The poems should be typed, in at least 12 point font, and single spaced with a double space between stanzas.
- Each poem must have a title.
- Each author may enter up to five poems. Each poem requires a separate entry fee.
- Only one poem per page.
- The student’s phone number should appear at the top of each page. No other from of identification should appear on these pages.
- The poem must be accompanied by an entry form including the student’s full name, date of birth, HSLDA membership number (where applicable) and contact information, including email and phone number, should be on a separate sheet of paper.
Poems and entry forms must be mailed to:
HSLDA
Attn: Poetry Contest
P.O. Box 3000
Purcellville, VA 20134-9000
Entries must be postmarked on or before June 1, 2009. Only entries sent to the above address will qualify for the contest.
Fee
-
$10.00—HSLDA Member Discounted Entry Fee
- $15.00—Regular Entry Fee
The check should be made payable to “HSLDA” with a note of “Poetry Contest” in the memo line. Please do not enclose cash.
Prizes for Each Category
| Category |
1 |
2 |
3 |
| First |
$100 |
$150 |
$200 |
| Second |
$75 |
$100 |
$150 |
| Third |
$50 |
$50 |
$100 |
| Honorable Mentions (2) |
$25 |
$25 |
$50 |
Forms
Entries in Category 1, 2, and 3 are to be a poem of Sestina form. The Sestina is a French form divided into 6 sestets (six-line stanzas) and 1 triplet called an envoi which is just a concluding stanza that is half the size of the rest. Thus a Sestina has 39 lines. Lines may be of any length, but usually the length is consistent in a single poem.
The Sestina is usually unrhymed and works by repeating the end words of each line. The six words that end each of the lines of the first stanza are repeated in a different order at the end of lines in each of the subsequent five stanzas. The particular pattern is given below. (This kind of recurrent pattern is “lexical repetition.”)
In the closing envoi, each of the six words are used in any order with one in the middle of the line and one at the end.
The pattern for repeating the words is like this: (stanza A) 123456, (stanza B) 615243. This 615243 pattern is how each of the “next” stanzas are made based off the previous stanza.
If this is confusing, the best way to clear it up is to look at some examples and watch how these poets move the last words of their stanzas. Pay special attention to the last, shorter stanza and how they put one word in the middle and another word at the end.
-
Algernon Charles Swinburne’s Sestina (which boldly rhymes its 6 words — “day,” “night,” “way,” “light,” “may,” and “delight”);
- Elizabeth Bishops’ Sestina (with the words, “house,” “grandmother,” “child,” “stove,” “almanac,” and “tears.”)
Judging
- Poems will be evaluated by a panel of judges appointed by HSLDA.
- Poems will be judged on originality of thought, writing style, and adherence to both the theme and the traditional requirements of the form.
- The decision of the judges is final.
- Results of the contest will be released by mid-July 2009.
Other Information
By submitting a poem you:
- Grant Home School Legal Defense Association the right to publish all or part of your submission.
- Agree to all rules and the decisions of the judges and sponsors.
Home School Legal Defense Association is not responsible for any lost, damaged, misdirected, delayed, mutilated, incomplete, illegible, or postage-due entries or mail.
All profits from this contest will go to the Home School Foundation’s Special Needs Children Fund
Please contact Contest Coordinator Cherise Ryan at contests@hslda.org with any questions.
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HOME SCHOOL LEGAL DEFENSE ASSOCIATION
