A small team of two to four young speakers shares a chosen poem aloud, dividing the lines between voices so the verse sounds like one shaped performance.
Share a Poem is a spoken-verse class for a small group rather than a single reciter. Two to four speakers choose a poem and divide it between them, so that different voices take different lines, verses or phrases, and sometimes all speak together for a key moment. The audience hears one poem, but it is carried by several people working as a unit.
A round begins with the team walking on and standing in a shape that lets everyone be heard and seen. One speaker may announce the title and poet. The team then delivers the poem, usually from memory or with the text close at hand, depending on the event syllabus. The adjudicator listens for how well the poem has been divided: handovers should feel natural, and the split should help the meaning rather than simply give everyone an equal number of lines.
On paper an entry is one named team with its members and the poem it will speak. The British template that carries this class lists it in the Literary category, as a team entry open to boys and girls, in six age bands: 7, 9, 11, 13, 15 and 18 and under. Each band has a five-minute limit counted per head of the performance, and marks are out of 100. The template prints no separate criteria, so organisers should tell teams in advance what the panel will weigh.
Organisers run the class because it gives shy or younger speakers a way into verse speaking with the support of friends, and because it teaches listening: a team that cannot hear and pick up each other cannot make the poem work. It also sits neatly beside the solo verse classes and the larger group speaking class in the same speech and drama section.
Where Share a Poem is run
Share a Poem appears on one eTalenter template, a British music, speech and drama eisteddfod, where its syllabus describes it as a class for two to four voices within the speech and drama section. Shared and group verse classes are a familiar part of competitive speech festivals more widely, but this page records only the template listed here.
- United Kingdom
Key facts
- Team entry of two to four voices, open to boys and girls together
- Six age bands on the template: 7, 9, 11, 13, 15 and 18 and under
- Five-minute limit in every band, counted per head of the performance
- Marked out of 100; the template prints no separate criteria
- Listed under the Literary category, in English
- Judged as one team performance, not voice by voice
On eTalenter, Share a Poem is filed under Literary and typically scored with Marks. It appears in 1 ready-made event templates — each one can adjust its time limit, age-group assignment and scoring setup independently.
Across the templates that use it, Share a Poem is most often entered as an Team competition, typically scored out of 100, commonly time-limited to around 5 minutes where a limit is set.
The scoring method the templates attach to this item, and what that scale means. The category this competition is filed under when a template is installed. Others in this category: Elocution, Storytelling, Versification, Debate, Quiz, Declamation, Oration, Recitation eTalenter matches an item to its criteria on the words in its name, and creates exactly these when the template is installed. No criteria match this name, so none are created automatically — judges score it on the event’s own criteria instead.How it is scored
Where it sits
Judging criteria installed for it
What judges look at in Share a Poem
What a Share a Poem panel is actually weighing up, and where the marks are usually won or lost:
- Division of the poem: the lines are shared in a way that brings out the meaning, not just in equal slices
- Handovers: each speaker picks up on cue with no gap, no rush and no change in energy
- Clarity: every word is heard, even when several voices speak together
- Interpretation: the mood, rhythm and surprises of the poem are shown through pace, volume and pause
- Teamwork: the speakers listen to one another and look like one group, not separate soloists
- Memory and security: the poem is known well enough that the team looks up and out to the audience
- Poem choice: a poem that suits the age of the team and works well when shared earns more than one that is too hard or too long
Treat these as the judging focus, not a fixed rubric: publish your own weighted criteria for Share a Poem under Scoring Setup, or start from how judge scoring and tabulation works in eTalenter.
How to prepare for Share a Poem
How entrants and their teachers usually get Share a Poem right on the day:
- Pick a poem that has natural breaks, such as a conversation, a list, a question and answer, or a refrain the whole team can say
- Mark up one copy of the poem and try several ways of dividing it before settling; read each version aloud and keep the one that makes the meaning clearest
- Practise the poem alone first so each speaker knows every line, then put the team together
- Rehearse handovers on their own, saying only the last words of one speaker and the first words of the next until they join smoothly
- Decide where the whole team speaks together and rehearse it slowly so the words land at the same moment
- Agree on a simple stage layout and a neat walk-on and walk-off so the performance starts and ends cleanly
- Time a full run including the walk-on, so the team finishes inside five minutes
- Perform it once for family or classmates beforehand so the team is used to an audience
Ready-made templates that already include this competition. Installing one sets it up for you.Events that run this (1)
Frequently asked questions
Is Share a Poem judged individually or as a team?
Across eTalenter’s templates it’s most often run as an Team entry, though an organiser can set either participation type when assigning the item to an age group.
How many people can take part in Share a Poem?
The syllabus summarised on the British template describes it as a class for two to four voices. Check the event’s own rules for how team size is counted on the day.
How long can a Share a Poem performance last?
The template sets five minutes in every age band, counted per head of the performance, so allow for the walk-on and settling time inside the limit.
Is Share a Poem the same as Group Speaking?
No. Share a Poem is for a small team of two to four voices who divide a poem between them. Group Speaking is a separate class for a larger group, with a minimum of three speakers.
Is the team judged together or one speaker at a time?
Together. One mark out of 100 goes to the whole team, so smooth handovers and shared interpretation count for more than any single voice.
Similar competitions
Items whose names share a word with this one — usually the same discipline in another form.
- Poem Writing 11
- Poem Recitation 7
- Poem for Two 3
- Australian Poem 2
- Poem by a Poet Other Than Australian 1
- Poem Recitation (Common) 1
- Poem (Own Choice) 1
- Own Poem (Written and Performed by the Poet) 1
- Parent's Poem 1
- Sacred or Inspirational Prose or Poem Memory 1
- Speech - Poem, Prose and Monologue 1
- Write and Recite Own Poem Solo 1
Want the full judging picture? Read how judge scoring and tabulation works in eTalenter, or browse every literary competition item.
Try Share a Poem in eTalenter
See every ready-made template that runs Share a Poem, and install one as a live event — age groups, rules and scoring included.
