Poetry By Heart is the newest addition to a global family of national poetry recitation competitions. These all work in slightly different ways but have the shared aim of encouraging young people to enjoy poetry and to share that pleasure through public recitation. One day we hope to have a poetry recitation “Olympics” involving the national champions of all these competitions. If you know of any other national competitions not on this list, please get in touch – we’d love to hear about them!
Our Friends
Founded by Andrew Motion and Julie Blake in 2012, developed by The Poetry Archive with The Full English, and funded by the Department for Education, Poetry by Heart is a national poetry recitation competition open to all pupils and students in England aged between 14 and 18. The Poetry By Heart website is a shared asset of The Poetry Archive and The Full English. It is maintained and developed by The Full English as a resource for a national poetry recitation competition and for teaching and learning about poetry.