Ventura County has joined a nationwide competition this year, asking high school students to recite classic poems for a chance at scholarships.

Poetry Out Loud — created by the National Endowment for the Arts and Poetry Foundation in 2005 — is a recitation contest modeled after the national spelling bee.

Students compete at the local, state and national levels, memorizing classic poems and reciting them on stage in front of an audience.

Organizers said they hope to build on the popularity of rap and slam contests and encourage students to study great, classic poetry.

"It's an arts discipline that's kind of reaching a renaissance," said Margaret Travers, executive director of the Ventura County Arts Council, which is leading the local effort. "Poetry seems to resonate with students and adults."

More than 100,000 students nationwide competed in last year's competition, and Travers hopes Poetry Out Loud also will prove popular in Ventura County schools.

"It helps with teaching kids or anyone how to get up in front of a crowd and speak," said Ken Huffman, a Sacramento County student who took the 2006 state title.

But it does more than that, he said. "Because it's poetry, it sort of forces students to analyze or draw meaning from words, and I think that's really powerful."

The countywide contest is scheduled for Feb. 20.

Ventura's top students will then join winners from 21 other California counties at a state championship March 14. The national competition will be held in April.

Any high school student in public, private or home school is eligible to compete.

Students can choose from hundreds of poems and will be judged based on a variety of criteria, including volume, articulation and understanding of the poem.

Winners are eligible to receive scholarships and money for their schools to buy poetry books.

Teachers also can get involved. The Poetry Out Loud program provides professional poets to work with teachers in the classroom.

Teaching guides and other educational materials also are available.

"The arts in the schools are our top priority," Travers said. "The arts give them (students) another way of expressing themselves. It gives them another way to learn their subject matter. I think it gives them a feeling of confidence."

For more information on the local contest, call the Arts Council at 658-2213.

Information about the national competition and a list of poems can be found at www.poetryoutloud.org.