In 2021, exactly 60 years after its inaugural edition, the competition was revived in a COVID-safe way, to ensure Victorian students were rewarded for their hard work and creativity.
The society was founded in 1896 with the aim of promoting the Italian language and culture, while its annual poetry competition has run since 1961, when 200 students participated.
This year, some 1665 students from 48 schools took part in the competition.
As always, students were able to choose between three sections: poetry recitation, original poetry and discorso (speech).
No longer hosted at the University of Melbourne, which has long been home to many of the organisation’s initiatives, the competition became itinerant this year: the 15 judges moved from school to school (in some cases virtually, via Zoom).
The new, COVID-safe format was made possible by Ester Marcuccio, who has coordinated the competition for the last eight years.
The first canto of Paradiso – the third and final part of Dante’s Divine Comedy – was one of the most popular among students, who also recited the works of Gianni Rodari, Renzo Pezzani, Eugenio Montale and Gabriella Costa Mieli, to name a few.
The judges praised the students’ intonation, pronunciation and expressive ability.
Thirty students competed in the discorso competition, writing and presenting a creative piece in response to the theme of “hope and freedom”.
According to the judges, the winners created introspective texts, expressing their thoughts on such a broad and complicated topic in a mature and personal manner.
The same theme was also addressed by the 35 students who recited as many original poems, three of whom won equal first prize.
Having presented poignant poems, the students were commended by the judges for their poetic finesse.
Congratulations to all students who participated, for their hard work and ability to express themselves in Italian using their language knowledge and skills.
To read the work of three winning students, see the Italian version of this article.
