- April 26, 2024
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When Cecilia Rike was in elementary school, a librarian at her school encouraged her to learn more about poetry. The librarian would even meet with Rike and other students on an individual basis to help them better understand the poetry they were going through.
"She always let me explore poetry and I always found it really interesting," Rike said. "She always loved poetry and she kind of instilled that love of poetry in me and helped foster that."
It wouldn't be until years later, when Rike was a freshman at Spruce Creek High School, that those times discussing poetry would come full circle when she won her school's poetry competition.
In October, one of Rike's teachers decided to have his students recite poetry as part of their grade. If students wanted, they could also use this to compete in the school's poetry competition. Rike and a few other classmates took on the challenge of competing.
Students were judged on accuracy as well as articulation and how they presented the poem in front of people.
For the competition, Rike chose two poems: “No coward soul is mine” by Emily Brontë and "London" by William Blake. It was the poem by Brontë that Rike said spoke to her.
"I do enjoy the style in which the Brontë sisters present their language and how they were ... revolutionary for their time," Rike said. "It was very uncommon for women to publish work at that time so I admire them for kind of being trailblazers for all the female poets that followed."
In December, Rike presented her poems and won. Now she will be taking her two poems, in addition to Robert Frost's “Fire and Ice,” to compete in the March 10 statewide competition in hopes of competing nationally.
In the meantime, Rike has a simple plan: practice and keep memorizing.
"I'm very proud of her," Cecilia’s guidance counselor, Karie Cappiello said. "It didn't surprise me that she was able to portray herself in such a manner."
