Poem – Own Choice Competition: What It Is, Where It’s Run and How It’s Judged

A solo speech class in which each entrant chooses a poem, learns it by heart and performs it to an adjudicator within a short time limit, marked on how well the chosen poem is spoken and brought to life.

Poem – Own Choice is a solo speaking class. The entrant picks one poem, learns it, and speaks it aloud to an adjudicator and a small audience. The words “own choice” are the point of the class: no set poem is printed in the schedule, so the first skill being tested is selection. A poem that suits the speaker’s voice, age and sense of humour or seriousness gives the performer far more to work with than one chosen only because it is short.

In the two syllabuses we build from, the class runs by school stage or school grade and is entered as an individual, with boys, girls and mixed entries together. A Cairns speech and drama schedule offers it in three bands (Grades 2 to 6, Grades 7 to 9 and Grades 10 to 12) with a three-minute limit for each. A Kempsey syllabus in New South Wales offers it for Stages 1 to 4, which covers school Years 1 to 8, also with a three-minute limit and a mark out of 100. Neither source prints a table of criteria for the class, so what an adjudicator rewards comes from general speech-and-drama practice rather than from a points sheet.

A round runs entrant by entrant within a band. The speaker walks to the performing space, may announce the title and poet, speaks the poem from memory and finishes cleanly inside the limit. Because everyone in a band is speaking a different poem, the adjudicator is not comparing which poem is better; the comparison is how well each speaker understands the poem they chose and how clearly they pass that understanding to the listener.

Organisers keep the class because it is cheap to run, needs no props or accompanist, and gives young speakers a way in before they try monologues or drama. It also sits naturally beside more specific verse classes, such as bush poetry, humorous verse or a poem for two voices, so a festival can offer a ladder from a plain own-choice poem to something more specialised.

Where Poem – Own Choice is run

In eTalenter’s data Poem – Own Choice appears in two Australian templates: the Cairns speech and drama schedule in Queensland and the Kempsey vocal, instrumental, speech and drama syllabus in New South Wales. It is a school-and-community eisteddfod class in the Australian speech tradition rather than a worldwide item, although the same idea of a freely chosen, memorised poem appears at festivals elsewhere under names such as Verse Speaking, Poem Recitation or Own Choice Poem; the catalogue keeps those as separate items where their rules differ.

• Australia – Queensland and New South Wales (eisteddfod speech and drama sections)

Key facts

• Individual entry; boys, girls and mixed entries compete together in the same band.
• The poem is the entrant’s own choice and is spoken in English; no set text is printed.
• Entered by school stage or grade rather than by age: Grades 2-6, 7-9 and 10-12 in one schedule, Stages 1 to 4 in another.
• Printed time limit is 3 minutes in both sources, measured per entrant.
• Scored out of 100 in one syllabus and on a 10-point scale in the other; neither prints a breakdown of marks, so none is assumed here.
• Idea starters, not rules: a funny poem about an animal for the younger bands, a nature poem with a strong image for the middle bands, or a reflective poem about change or friendship for the oldest band.

On eTalenter, Poem – Own Choice is filed under Literary and typically scored with Marks. It appears in 2 ready-made event templates — each one can adjust its time limit, age-group assignment and scoring setup independently.

Across the templates that use it, Poem – Own Choice is most often entered as an Individual competition, typically scored out of 100, commonly time-limited to around 3 minutes where a limit is set.

What judges look at in Poem – Own Choice

What a Poem – Own Choice panel is actually weighing up, and where the marks are usually won or lost:

• Choice of poem: the poem suits the speaker’s age and voice and is long enough to show variety without running past the limit.
• Memory and security: the poem is word-perfect or near it, with no stalls, restarts or visible hunting for the next line.
• Clarity of diction: every word can be heard at the back of the room, with consonants finished and vowels held where the poem asks for it.
• Understanding and expression: the speaker clearly knows what each verse means and shows it through changes of pace, pitch and volume instead of one even tone.
• Use of pause and rhythm: the line endings, punctuation and stress pattern of the poem are respected, and silence is used to let an image land.
• Presence and finish: the speaker stands still and confident, makes eye contact with the room, and ends the poem with a clear final line and a held moment before stepping away.

Treat these as the judging focus, not a fixed rubric: publish your own weighted criteria for Poem – Own Choice under Scoring Setup, or start from the full recitation & poetry judging criteria guide.

How to prepare for Poem – Own Choice

How entrants and their teachers usually get Poem – Own Choice right on the day:

• Read at least a dozen poems aloud before choosing one, and pick the one you can explain in a sentence: what it is about and how it should feel.
• Time the poem at a calm speaking pace, not a rushed one, and keep a margin under the limit for an introduction and a nervous first breath.
• Learn it in verses rather than line by line, and test yourself by starting from the middle of a verse so a single slip does not lose the whole poem.
• Mark a copy with breath marks, stress words and pauses, then speak it again following only your own marks.
• Practise in front of a person at the far end of a large room, asking whether they could hear the last word of every line.
• Record yourself on a phone and listen for a flat, sing-song rhythm; if every line ends on the same note, vary the pace between verses.
• On the day, check the title and poet’s name you will announce, stand tall and take a breath before the first word, and finish with a short held silence.
• After a result, ask for the adjudicator’s written comments and choose the next poem to fix the weakest point they name, whether that is memory, volume or expression.

Frequently asked questions

Is Poem – Own Choice judged individually or as a team?

Across eTalenter’s templates it’s most often run as an Individual entry, though an organiser can set either participation type when assigning the item to an age group.

What does “own choice” mean in a poem class?

It means the entrant picks the poem. The schedules we build from print no set poem for this class, so any suitable poem is allowed unless the festival’s own rules restrict it, for example by theme, length or author.

How long can the poem be?

Both sources we build from print a three-minute limit per entrant. Check your own festival’s limit, because the time can differ by age band and some schedules count an announcement within the time.

Do I have to learn the poem by heart?

Poem classes in these schedules are speaking classes, and entrants are normally expected to perform from memory. Look for any note in your own syllabus that allows a script for younger bands.

Is this the same as Verse Speaking or Poem Recitation?

They are close in format: a solo memorised poem. The catalogue keeps them as separate items because festivals set their own tiers, limits and extra rules, so always follow the rules for the class you enter.

Can I write the poem myself?

Neither syllabus we build from treats this as a writing class. Some festivals run a separate class for an entrant’s own composition, so check whether your poem should be a published one before entering.

Want the full judging picture? Read the full recitation & poetry judging criteria guide, or browse every literary competition item.