Nine Maryland high school students gathered Saturday at the Enoch Pratt Free Library to compete for the state championship in the national Poetry Out Loud competition. The students recited memorized selections by Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Frost, Alfred, Lord Tennyson and other giants. They clenched their fists and clutched their hearts to accentuate dramatic passages. Competitors were judged on presence, articulation, understanding of the poem and the difficulty of their selections. The winner, Nora Sand- ler, a senior at Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville, received a $200 prize and advanced to the national finals in Washington at the end of April.