2024 Poetry Contest
Honoring Earth Day

Sponsored by Huntsville Master Chorale and
Huntsville-Madison County Public Library

The Huntsville Master Chorale seeks to celebrate creativity and community in all that we do.    This year, we are excited to partner with the Huntsville-Madison County Public Library to sponsor this Earth Day Poetry Contest.  Through our annual Composition Contest, we are able to bring a new musical work to life each year, and this year’s Composition Contest entries will be setting to music the text of the Poetry Contest winners!

Through this collaboration, we will be able to showcase the creativity and artistry present in our community by facilitating the creation of a beautiful new piece of choral music! We invite all area rising high school Juniors and Seniors to submit their poetry, on the theme of Earth Day, to be considered!

Note: The entry form requires the user to log in with a Google account for submissions. To submit without a Google account, or for any other questions, please email us at admin@hsvmasterchorale.org

  • Purpose

    The purpose of this contest is to provide the opportunity for North Alabama High school students to find their own literary voices while celebrating the resources that our planet provides to humanity, and to recognize High School Junior and Senior poets for excellence by providing quality poems for use as lyrics for the 2025 HMC Choral Composition Contest.

  • Who May Enter

    Any student enrolled as a Junior or Senior in a city or county public or private high school, including home-schooled students, in Madison County for the school year 2024-2025 will be eligible. Evidence of enrollment may be required for the selected winners.

  • Judging

    Judges from HMC and HMCPL will evaluate entries for originality, craft, and relevance to the theme, as well as attention to the guidelines found in the Entry Requirements below. Throughout the judging process, all entries will be anonymous with no identification of the author.

  • Winners

    Up to 3 winning poems may be selected and will each receive a $200 prize for the Poetry Contest. The winning poems will be provided to composers around the nation who wish to enter the HMC Choral Composition Contest. Each composer will choose which of the poems they prefer to set to music. One Composition will be selected as the Composition Contest Winner and will be presented by the Huntsville Master Chorale during their Spring 2025 concert.

Click Here to Enter!

Entry Requirements

  1. All submissions will be based on an environmental theme.

  2. Contest is open from June 15, 2024, through August 31, 2024.

  3. Submissions can be made in .pdf or .docx format using the link on the entry form. Students without computer access may use the public access computers in the Huntsville-Madison County Public Library System.

  4. All poetry should be easily translated into musical compositions for the separate composition contest managed by HMC. Students are discouraged from lengthy poems or from creating poetry with words or phrases that are not easily spoken, as the winning selections will be used as lyrics set to music for voice and instrument.

  5. An example below is Robert Louis Stevenson’s Flower God which was used by a commissioned composer, Michael John Trotta, in HMC’s spring concert for 2018:

    Flower god, god of the spring, beautiful, bountiful,
    Cold-dyed shield in the sky, lover of versicles,
    Here I wander in April
    Cold, grey-headed; and still to my
    Heart, Spring comes with a bound, Spring the deliverer,
    Spring, song-leader in woods, chorally resonant;
    Spring, flower-planter in meadows,
    Child-conductor in willowy
    Fields deep dotted with bloom, daisies and crocuses:
    Here that child from his heart drinks of eternity:
    O child, happy are children!
    She still smiles on their innocence,
    She, dear mother in God, fostering violets,
    Fills earth full of her scents, voices and violins:
    Thus one cunning in music
    Wakes old chords in the memory:
    Thus fair earth in the Spring leads her performances.
    One more touch of the bow, smell of the virginal
    Green - one more, and my bosom
    Feels new life with an ecstasy.

  6. Plagiarism, use of copyrighted material, or cheating is unacceptable and AI-generated work is prohibited.

  7. Students should be prepared to testify as to the originality of their submissions. Any submissions with evidence of plagiarism will be disqualified.

  8. All winning and honorable mention poets must agree in written form to give up any rights to be used by Huntsville Master Chorale choral composition contest and performances.

Note: The entry form requires the user to log in with a Google account for submissions. To submit without a Google account, or for any other questions, please email us at admin@hsvmasterchorale.org