ROUND FOUR: 8-torments vs. 11-idealized

Click here for authlete instructions.

Voter Instructions:

• The countdown at the bottom of each pairing indicates how much time is left to vote.
  • When voting closes, timer will disappear.
• Read both poems as many times as you’d like.
• Mark the poem you like best by clicking the circle next to its name.
• Press the “Vote” button to record your vote.
• Votes are counted in real time and cannot be changed once entered.
• In the Public Vote, anyone may vote, but only one vote is allowed per IP address.
• In the Classroom Vote, you must be registered and logged in to vote.
  • Official voting classrooms should read and discuss each poem and then submit one vote as a class.
  • Students can then vote again individually from home.
• In the Authlete Vote, you must be a 2015 authlete and logged in to vote.

Things to Consider in Making a Choice:

• How well the poem incorporates the authlete’s assigned word, given its level of difficulty.
• Whether or not the poem adheres to the poem requirements for the contest.
• Precision: structure, meter, rhyme, syntax, etc.
• Personality: creative imagery, language, metaphor, etc.
• Power: makes you laugh, cry, want, sigh, think, dream, wince, scream, etc.
• Plus One: it is a poem you feel drawn to share with another person for whatever reason.

Apply your own criteria as well! For more on the above concepts, check out POEMETRICS™.

8-torments _{^{what does it mean?}}
Ben and Bruce: A Play Almost a Play in One in Almost One Act
By Rebekah Hoeft

Oh, listen, my children to what happened when
This teller of tales was a child of but ten
(Four months and three days ago if I’m exact);
Below are the lines if you’d care to enact.

First enters our hero – that’s me – I’m named Ben,
Just swingin’ and mindin’ my business but then
Next enters the villain called Bruce the Big Brute
Who torments the hero for whom you will root.

So bravely I jumped with my ninja-like skill
Had almost escaped ‘til I tripped, took a spill.
We scrabbled and grabbed for the ball. Tell me, friend:
Just how do you think that this story will end?

vs.

11-idealized _{^{what does it mean?}}
THE SWAMP IS ALWAYS GREENER: a poem for two bullfrogs
(Poems for two voices are read across the page by two readers.)
By Renée M. LaTulippe