A SWAN Hill high school student has been awarded for reciting an entire piece of historic Italian poetry off by heart.
St Mary MacKillop College student Baden Grey, 15, won the “Non Italian” category of the Dante Alighieri Society’s Year 10 poetry recitation awards after recounting an excerpt from 14th century Italian poet Dante Alighieri’s Paradiso.
The awards attract as many as 4000 student entries from across the state, with competitions covering grades 9-12.
Baden travelled to Melbourne with the rest of his Year 9/10 Italian class earlier in the year to participate in the first round of the competition, where he recited a dozen lines of Paradiso to a judge.
The 15-year-old advanced to the final round of the competition on Friday along with four Year 9 girls from his class — before winning his competition.
