German Poetry Competition at Melbourne University.

Recently, Melbourne University held a German poetry competition for Years 10-12, with categories such as Individual Recitation, Group Recitations, and Original Written Poems. At the award ceremony on Sunday, August 17th, Mac.Rob brought home multiple wins.

Shipra S (10F) recited the poem “Die zweite Person” by Yoko Tawada, and Jahziel S (11D) recited “Geweihe” by Nora Bossong; both won 2nd place in their Individual Poem categories. Nan Y (10K) won 1st place with her original poem written in German, “Warum?”, and the group performance of “Ich bin ein Mensch” by Nevfel Cumart, presented by 11D students Ayanna A, Serah B, Lucy D, Quentin S and Jahziel S, brought home another 1st place win.

This poetry competition provided amazing opportunities for the German cohort to further immerse themselves in the language, allowing us to work as a team while also working on punctuation, vocal inflections, and piecing together our own meanings and interpretations from the collection of contemporary poems. At the award ceremony itself, all the participants received a crash course on the features of contemporary German poetry, learning about the ways enjambment (the continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line or stanza) is often used, the frequent use of lower-case letters, and the context or events that inspired these poems.

Mac.Rob did an incredible job at this competition and brought home many awards, but more importantly, gained a whole new repertoire of German language skills.

Ayanna A (11D)