INTRODUCTION:

Module 1: Poetry
Introduction: Philippine Literature During the American Period PHILIPPINE LITERATURE DURING THE AMERICAN PERIOD
Dr. Lilia Quindoza-Santiago
Lesson 1: The Nature and Structure of Poetry – Getting at the Sense of the Poem National Commission for Culture and the Arts
Post-Reading Activity 1: Identifying Imagery and Symbolism
Literary Texts: Day on the Farm by Luis G. Dato, Vanity by Trinidad L. Tarrosa-Subido, Bonsai by Edith Philippine literary production during the American Period in the Philippines was spurred by two
L. Tiempo significant developments in education and culture. One is the introduction of free public instruction for all
children of school age and two, the use of English as medium of instruction in all levels of education in
public schools.
Lesson 2: Knowing the Sound Devices
Post-reading Activity 2: Knowing the Sound Devices Free public education made knowledge and information accessible to a greater number of Filipinos.
Literary Text: Family Reunion by Carlos A. Angeles Those who availed of this education through college were able to improve their social status and joined a
good number of educated masses who became part of the country’s middle class.
Lesson 3: Figurative Language in Poetry
Post-Reading Activity 3: Identifying Figures of Speech The use of English as medium of instruction introduced Filipinos to Anglo-American modes of
Literary Texts: Inviting a Tiger for a Weekend by Jose Garcia Villa and I Don’t Invite the Tigers, thought, culture and life ways that would be embedded not only in the literature produced but also in the
Augustine by Ricaredo Demetillo psyche of the country’s educated class. It was this educated class that would be the wellspring of a vibrant
Philippine Literature in English.
Lesson 4: Identifying the Theme and Tone of a Poem
Post-Reading Activity 4: Interpreting Poems Using Theme and Tone Philippine literature in English, as a direct result of American colonization of the country, could not
Literary Texts: I Have Begrudged the Years by Angela Manalang-Gloria and I Can No More Hear Love’s escape being imitative of American models of writing especially during its period of apprenticeship. The
by Jose Garcia Villa poetry written by early poets manifested studied attempts at versification as in the following poem which
is proof of the poet’s rather elementary exercise in the English language:
Lesson 5: Historical and Biographical Approaches in Reading Poetry
National Artist in Literature Focus: The Life and Works of Bienvenido Lumbera Vacation days at last are here,
Literary Texts: Voyagers on Recto Avenue and Servant by Bienvenido Lumbera And we have time for fun so dear,
All boys and girls do gladly cheer,
This welcomed season of the year.
Term paper: A Historical and Biographical Analysis of Poetry In early June in school we’ll meet;
Literary texts: Short Time by Jaime An Lim, Rape by Joi Barrios, Open Letter to Filipino Artists by A harder task shall we complete
Emmanuel Lacaba and If You Want to Know What We Are by Carlos Bulosan And if we fail we must repeat
That self same task without retreat.
We simply rest to come again
To school where boys and girls obtain
The Creator’s gift to men
Whose sanguine hopes in us remain.
Vacation means a time for play
For young and old in night and day
My wish for all is to be gay,
And evil none lead you astray

– Juan F. Salazar

Philippines Free Press, May 9, 1909

The poem was anthologized in the first collection of poetry in English, Filipino Poetry, edited by
Rodolfo Dato (1909 – 1924). Among the poets featured in this anthology were Proceso Sebastian Maximo
Kalaw, Fernando Maramag, Leopoldo Uichanco, Jose Ledesma, Vicente Callao, Santiago Sevilla, Bernardo
Garcia, Francisco Africa, Pablo Anzures, Carlos P. Romulo, Francisco Tonogbanua, Juan Pastrana, Maria

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Agoncillo, Paz Marquez Benitez, Luis Dato and many others. Another anthology, The English German On the other hand, the flowering of a vibrant literary tradition due to historical events did not altogether
Anthology of Poetsedited by Pablo Laslo was published and covered poets published from 1924-1934 hamper literary production in the native or indigenous languages. In fact, the early period of the 20th century
among whom were Teofilo D. Agcaoili, Aurelio Alvero, Horacio de la Costa, Amador T. Daguio, Salvador was remarkable for the significant literary output of all major languages in the various literary genre.
P. Lopez, Angela Manalang Gloria, Trinidad Tarrosa, Abelardo Subido and Jose Garcia Villa, among
others. A third pre-war collection of poetry was edited by Carlos Bulosan, Chorus for America: Six It was during the early American period that seditious plays, using the form of the zarsuwela, were
Philippine Poets. The six poets in this collection were Jose Garcia Villa, Rafael Zulueta da Costa, Rodrigo mounted. Zarsuwelistas Juan Abad, Aurelio Tolentino ,Juan Matapang Cruz. Juan Crisostomo Sotto
T. Feria, C.B. Rigor, Cecilio Baroga and Carlos Bulosan. mounted the classics like Tanikalang Ginto, Kahapon, Ngayon at Bukas and Hindi Ako Patay, all directed
against the American imperialists. Patricio Mariano’s Anak ng Dagat and Severino Reyes’s Walang Sugat
In fiction, the period of apprenticeship in literary writing in English is marked by imitation of the style are equally remarkable zarsuwelas staged during the period.
of storytelling and strict adherence to the craft of the short story as practiced by popular American
fictionists. Early short story writers in English were often dubbed as the Andersons or Saroyans or the On the eve of World War II, Wilfredo Maria Guerrero would gain dominance in theatre through his
Hemingways of Philippine letters. Leopoldo Yabes in his study of the Philippine short story in English from one-act plays which he toured through his “mobile theatre”. Thus, Wanted a Chaperone and The Forsaken
1925 to 1955 points to these models of American fiction exerting profound influence on the early writings Housebecame very popular in campuses throughout the archipelago.
of story writers like Francisco Arcellana, A.E. Litiatco, Paz Latorena. .
The novel in Tagalog, Iloko, Hiligaynon and Sugbuanon also developed during the period aided
When the University of the Philippines was founded in 1908, an elite group of writers in English began largely by the steady publication of weekly magazines like the Liwayway, Bannawag and Bisaya which
to exert influence among the culturati. The U.P. Writers Club founded in 1926, had stated that one of its serialized the novels.
aims was to enhance and propagate the “language of Shakespeare.” In 1925, Paz Marquez Benitez short
story, “Dead Stars” was published and was made the landmark of the maturity of the Filipino writer in Among the early Tagalog novelists of the 20th century were Ishmael Amado, Valeriano Hernandez
English. Soon after Benitez, short story writers began publishing stories no longer imitative of American Peña, Faustino Aguilar, Lope K. Santos and Lazaro Francisco.
models. Thus, story writers like Icasiano Calalang, A.E. Litiatco, Arturo Rotor, Lydia Villanueva, Paz
Latorena , Manuel Arguilla began publishing stories manifesting both skilled use of the language and a Ishmael Amado’s Bulalakaw ng Pag-asa published in 1909 was one of the earliest novels that dealt
keen Filipino sensibility. with the theme of American imperialism in the Philippines. The novel, however, was not released from the
printing press until 1916, at which time, the author, by his own admission and after having been sent as a
This combination of writing in a borrowed tongue while dwelling on Filipino customs and traditions pensionado to the U.S., had other ideas apart from those he wrote in the novel.
earmarked the literary output of major Filipino fictionists in English during the American period. Thus, the
major novels of the period, such as the Filipino Rebel, by Maximo Kalaw, and His Native Soil by Juan C. Valeriano Hernandez Peña’s Nena at Neneng narrates the story of two women who happened to be
Laya, are discourses on cultural identity, nationhood and being Filipino done in the English language. best of friends as they cope with their relationships with the men in their lives. Nena succeeds in her married
Stories such as “How My Brother Leon Brought Home a Wife” by Manuel Arguilla scanned the scenery as life while Neneng suffers from a stormy marriage because of her jealous husband.
well as the folkways of Ilocandia while N.V. M. Gonzales’s novels and stories such as “Children of the Ash
Covered Loam,” present the panorama of Mindoro, in all its customs and traditions while configuring its Faustino Aguilar published Pinaglahuan, a love triangle set in the early years of the century when the
characters in the human dilemma of nostalgia and poverty. Apart from Arguilla and Gonzales, noted worker’s movement was being formed. The novel’s hero, Luis Gatbuhay, is a worker in a printery who
fictionists during the period included Francisco Arcellana, whom Jose Garcia Villa lauded as a “genius” isimprisoned for a false accusation and loses his love, Danding, to his rival Rojalde, son of a wealthy
storyteller, Consorcio Borje, Aida Rivera, Conrado Pedroche, Amador Daguio, Sinai Hamada, Hernando capitalist. Lope K. Santos, Banaag at Sikat has almost the same theme and motif as the hero of the novel,
Ocampo, Fernando Maria Guerrero. Jose Garcia Villa himself wrote several short stories but devoted most Delfin, also falls in love with a rich woman, daughter of a wealthy landlord. The love story of course is set
of his time to poetry. also within the background of development of the worker’s trade union movement and throughout the
novel, Santos engages the readers in lengthy treatises and discourses on socialism and capitalism. Many
In 1936, when the Philippine Writers League was organized, Filipino writers in English began other Tagalog novelists wrote on variations of the same theme, i.e., the interplay of fate, love and social
discussing the value of literature in society. Initiated and led by Salvador P. Lopez, whose essays on justice. Among these writers are Inigo Ed Regalado, Roman Reyes, Fausto J. Galauran, Susana de Guzman,
Literature and Societyprovoked debates, the discussion centered on proletarian literature, i.e., engaged or Rosario de Guzman-Lingat, Lazaro Francisco, Hilaria Labog, Rosalia Aguinaldo, Amado V. Hernandez.
committed literature versus the art for art’s sake literary orientation. But this discussion curiously left out Many of these writers were able to produce three or more novels as Soledad Reyes would bear out in her
the issue of colonialism and colonial literature and the whole place of literary writing in English under a book which is the result of her dissertation, Ang Nobelang Tagalog (1979).
colonial set-up that was the Philippines then.
Among the Iloko writers, noted novelists were Leon Pichay, who was also the region’s poet laureate
With Salvador P. Lopez, the essay in English gained the upper hand in day to day discourse on politics then, Hermogenes Belen, and Mena Pecson Crisologo whose Mining wenno Ayat ti Kararwa is considered
and governance. Polemicists who used to write in Spanish like Claro M. Recto, slowly started using English to be the Iloko version of a Noli me Tangere.
in the discussion of current events even as newspaper dailies moved away from Spanish reporting into
English. Among the essayists, Federico Mangahas had an easy facility with the language and the essay as In the Visayas, Magdalena Jalandoni and Ramon Muzones would lead most writers in writing the
genre. Other noted essayists during the period were Fernando Maramag, Carlos P. Romulo , Conrado novels that dwelt on the themes of love, courtship, life in the farmlands, and other social upheavals of the
Ramirez. period. Marcel Navarra wrote stories and novels in Sugbuhanon.

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 Poetry in all languages continued to flourish in all regions of the country during the American period.
The Tagalogs, hailing Francisco F. Balagtas as the nation’s foremost poet invented the balagtasan in his The separate, yet parallel developments of Philippine literature in English and those in Tagalog and
honor. The balagtasan is a debate in verse, a poetical joust done almost spontaneously between protagonists other languages of the archipelago during the American period only prove that literature and writing in
who debate over the pros and cons of an issue. whatever language and in whatever climate are able to survive mainly through the active imagination of
writers. Apparently, what was lacking during the period was for the writers in the various languages to
The first balagtasan was held in March 1924 at the Instituto de Mujeres, with Jose Corazon de Jesus come together, share experiences and come to a conclusion on the elements that constitute good writing in
and Florentino Collantes as rivals, bubuyog (bee) and paru-paro (butterfly) aiming for the love of kampupot the Philippines.
(jasmine). It was during this balagtasan that Jose Corazon de Jesus, known as Huseng Batute, emerged
triumphant to become the first king of the Balagtasan. Jose Corazon de Jesus was the finest master of the
genre. He was later followed by balagtasistas, Emilio Mar Antonio and Crescenciano Marquez, who also About the Author:
became King of the Balagtasan in their own time.
Lilia Quindoza-Santiago is the author behind “Kagampanan at Iba Pang Tula” and “Ang Manggagamot ng
As Huseng Batute, de Jesus also produced the finest poems and lyrics during the period. His debates Salay-Salay” (a collection of stories). She was named Makata ng Taon (1989) in the annual Talaang Ginto
with Amado V. Hernandez on the political issue of independence from America and nationhood were of the Surian ng Wikang Pambansa for her work “Sa Ngalan ng Ina, ng Anak, ng Diwata’t Paraluman”. She
mostly done in verse and are testament to the vitality of Tagalog poetry during the era. Lope K. Santos, teaches Philippine Literature at the University of the Philippines.
epic poem, Ang Panggingera is also proof of how poets of the period have come to master the language to FacebookTwitterPinterestEmailShare
be able to translate it into effective poetry.

The balagtasan would be echoed as a poetical fiesta and would be duplicated in the Ilocos as
thebukanegan, in honor of Pedro Bukaneg, the supposed transcriber of the epic, Biag ni Lam-ang; and The Nature and Structure of Poetry, a Formalist Approach
theCrissottan, in Pampanga, in honor of the esteemed poet of the Pampango, Juan Crisostomo Sotto.
Poetry may well be the oldest of literary forms, for certainly a great deal of the oldest literature of
In 1932, Alejandro G. Abadilla , armed with new criticism and an orientation on modernist poetry which we have written records is in verse. Yet today, poetry is regarded as the most difficult and
would taunt traditional Tagalog poetics with the publication of his poem, “Ako ang Daigdig.” Abadilla’s sophisticated of all literary forms. This perception may very well stem from the fact that poetry is different
poetry began the era of modernism in Tagalog poetry, a departure from the traditional rhymed, measured from everyday speech. It is a lot shorter yet says much more. It is also more musical than other types, hence
and orally recited poems. Modernist poetry which utilized free or blank verses was intended more for silent it requires that it be read aloud to be better appreciated. When reading poetry, it is also necessary that one
reading than oral delivery. stop and think from time to time, for its meaning is implied and suggested in the carefully chosen words.
The poet therefore chooses the words he uses in a poem not only for the meaning but also for the sound that
Noted poets in Tagalog during the American period were Julian Cruz Balmaceda, Florentino Collantes, may suggest an idea or an emotion; for poetry is not just idea or emotion, but a feeling and attitude about
Pedro Gatmaitan, Jose Corazon de Jesus, Benigno Ramos, Inigo Ed. Regalado, Ildefonso Santos, Lope K. this idea or emotion.
Santos, Aniceto Silvestre, Emilio Mar. Antonio , Alejandro Abadilla and Teodoro Agoncillo.
A poem as utterance somehow always has a speaker and usually a listener, too. The implied speaker
Like the writers in English who formed themselves into organizations, Tagalog writers also formed is called the persona and the implied or direct listener is called the addressee. Note that the persona of the
the Ilaw at Panitik, and held discussions and workshops on the value of literature in society. Benigno poem is not the poet, but the voice in the poem, and the addressee is not the reader, but the one the persona
Ramos, was one of the most politicized poets of the period as he aligned himself with the peasants of the is talking to in the text. For example, in Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18, the persona is not Shakespeare but a
Sakdal Movement. lover, a bachelor, a man who is in deep admiration of a woman, while the addressee is a maiden, a beautiful
woman.
Fiction in Tagalog as well as in the other languages of the regions developed alongside the novel. Most
fictionists are also novelists. Brigido Batungbakal , Macario Pineda and other writers chose to dwell on the
vicissitudes of life in a changing rural landscape. Deogracias Del Rosario on the other hand, chose the city Looking through the Structure
and the emerging social elite as subjects of his stories. He is considered the father of the modern short story
in Tagalog Structure refers to two things: the manner in which words are arranged and fit together in particular, and
the organization of the parts in a complex entity to form a whole. These include:
Among the more popular fictionists who emerged during the period are two women writers, Liwayway o Word order o Ellipsis
Arceo and Genoveva Edroza Matute, considered forerunners in the use of “light” fiction, a kind of story o Syntax o Punctuation or the lack of it
telling that uses language through poignant rendition. Genoveva Edroza Matute’s “Ako’y Isang Tinig” and
Liwayway Arceo’s “Uhaw ang Tigang na Lupa” have been used as models of fine writing in Filipino by Structure also refers to the way a poem is organized. This would correspond to the different types of poetry
teachers of composition throughout the school system. as narrative, lyric, and dramatic.

Teodoro Agoncillo’s anthology 25 Pinakamahusay na Maiikling Kuwento (1945) included the

foremost writers of fiction in the pre-war era.

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1. Narrative poem tells a story. Lesson 1: Getting at the Sense of the Poem

Epic – a long poem about a heroic character who represents the ideals and aspirations of a group of
people. It may be folk – of unknown authorship, or literary – purposely written by a known author and To facilitate the reading of the poem better, the following are some of the elements commonly used in
consciously imitating the earlier heroic form. reading and understanding the poem:

Ballad – a shorter form, usually about more personal conflicts; and may be popular/folk, and literary. ➢ Denotation and Connotation – A word is a sound of a combination of sounds which refers to or
means something. A word may be used in different senses, but for each sense, the word refers to an
Metric tale – it is like a short story in verse. object, idea, action or quality. This meaning is called the denotation of a word. But sometimes, a word
may call to mind other meanings or ideas associated with the word. These are connotations.
Metrical romance – it is usually a story of adventure and love about a knight and his lady, and is told Connotations are what the words suggests beyond what it expresses – its overtones of meaning.
in verse. Connotation is important in poetry for it concentrates and enriches meaning so that more is said in
fewer words.
2. Lyric poems are usually descriptive or Expository where the poet is concerned mainly with presenting
a scene in words, conveying the sensory richness of his subject or the revelation of ideas or emotions. ➢ Imagery – The language of poetry is not only suggestive, it is also vivid. To recreate experience or
Some types of lyric poems are: present ideas, attitudes and feelings, poets usually use images. These are expressions that appeal to
the “senses of the mind” – very much related to the physical senses as sight, hearing, smell, touch and
Song – intended to be sung and may be sacred or secular taste, the thermal senses of hot and cold as well, and of motion. The expressions that appeal to these
senses enable the reader to “perceive” or “experience” the implied feeling-meaning of the poem.
Pure lyric / lyric – it may be pictorial, reflective, or deal with varied emotions and themes. It has song-
like qualities. ➢ Symbolism – A symbol is an image that becomes so suggestive that it takes on much more meaning
than its descriptive value. Even when it denotes a physical limited thing, it carries enlarging
Sonnet – a 14|line lyric of iambic pentameter. It maybe Petrarchan, Shakespearean or Spenserian in connotations. The connotations of the words, repetition, placement, or other indications of emphasis
rhyme scheme and structural arrangement of content/theme. help identify an image as a symbol.

Elegy – a poem for the dead in exalted tone.

Post-Reading Activity 1
Ode – a poem with a sustained emotion and a dignified language and a tone. Identifying Imagery and Symbolism

3. Dramatic poetry centers on a character in conflict with some force within or outside him/herself. The Directions: Read the following poems below. Identify the Imagery and Symbolism found in each poem.
different types are: List down as many images that are related with each other, as possible. For symbolisms, list the ones you
think are symbolic (figurative meaning) and write the meaning based on how you understand it.
Dramatic narrative – a story told through the verse dialogue of the characters and a narrator. Some
popular ballads are told in a suspenseful dramatic manner. Again, Images are literal things that create mental pictures. Something you can literally imagine – you can
see, touch, smell, taste and hear. While Symbols are objects that has a figurative meaning. Sometimes,
Dramatic monologue – a poem consisting of a self-revealing speech delivered by one person to a silent images have literal meaning (denotation/imagery) and figurative meaning (connotation/symbolism).
listener.
Follow this example:

Day on the Farm

This approach in understanding the meaning of poetry (or any literary genre) is called FORMALISM. Luis G. Dato
Formalist Literary Theory seeks to understands the literary work as it is; the textual object itself. This
means that meaning-making in the text is derived from the text alone, the words, images, symbols, patterns,
rhymes, meters, etc. In Formalism, meaning IS NOT derived from its historical background, intention of the I’ve found you fruits of sweetest taste and found you I’ve caught you in my arms an hour and taught you
author, other theories and the reader’s perception. We do not consider the author’s intention for writing the Bunches of duhat growing by the hill, Love’s secret where the mountain spirits meet.
I’ve bound your arms and hair with vine and bound you
text, the reader’s feelings about the text and the history, philosophy, and culture behind the text. It is solely
With rare wildflowers but you are crying still. Your smiles have died and there is no replying
based on the words and meanings IN THE TEXT. In short, formalism views the text as an organic unity, To all endearment and my gifts are vain;
where everything inside the text connects with each other. I’ve brought you all the forest ferns and brought you Come with me, love, you are too old for crying,
Wrapped in green leaves cicadas singing sweet, The church bells ring and I hear drops of rain.

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A. Imagery:
Vanity
1. Fruits of sweetest taste Trinidad L. Tarrosa-Subido
2. Bunches of duhat
3. Vine We call her Foreign Woman, God…
4. Rare wildflowers Burnished copper dusts are glinting from her hair;
5. Forest ferns White as the tropic sky her face; her eyes sea-blue;
6. Green leaves cicadas Like the silver of a levant star her smile.
My eyes are dark and, too, my hair;
7. Mountains
And brown the flesh that shrouds my soul;
8. Drops of rain If I should die tonight and be reborn;
O, lord Creator, make me too
A Foreign Woman to my native land.
B. Symbolism:
1. “Binding” – “Bound your arms and hair with vine and bound you with rare wildflowers but you
are still crying.” – these lines are symbolism for comforting the pain (‘crying’) of a loved-one
through embraces. The ‘binding’ is not literal but figurative. It means the “earth” (vine,
wildflowers) is hugging or embracing / comforting the person.
2. “Wrapped” – “Wrapped in green leaves,” “where the mountain spirits meet.” This may be
figurative for burying the dead. Being wrapped in nature, as spirits meet the person. “mountain
spirit” is symbolic for ghosts, or the fairies, or supernatural beings that may be inviting the dead
person.
3. “Church bells” – symbolism for funeral.
4. “Drops of rain” – symbolism for crying or sadness. The gloomy, cold weather is figurative for a
sad event.

Using the poems “Vanity” by Trinidad Subido and “Bonsai” by Edith Tiempo, identify the imagery and
symbolism used in the text.

Bonsai A roto picture of a queen,

Edith Tiempo A blue Indian shawl, even
A money bill.
All that I love
I fold over once It’s utter sublimation,
And once again A feat, this heart’s control
And keep in a box Moment to moment
Or a slit in a hollow post To scale all love down
Or in my shoe. To a cupped hand’s size

All that I love? Till seashells are broken pieces

From God’s own bright teeth,
Why, yes, but for the moment – And life and love are real
And for all time, both. Things you can run and
Something that folds and keeps easy, Breathless hand over
Son’s note or Dad’s one gaudy tie, To the merest child.

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Lesson 2: Knowing the Sound Devices Rhythm is perceived in a sequence of events when they recur so regularly that the time intervals they occupy
are felt to be nearly equal to one another or symmetrical (Deutsch, 1962)

The sound of words is important in making total sense, for no two words, no two sounds, ever have exactly Example: /For the strength/ of the Pack/ is the Wolf, / and the strength/ of the Wolf/ is the Pack./
the same meaning. Sound in poetry usually deals with the tone color (usually repetition of single sounds, There are three syllables in each measure, forming a triple beat.
or words, or of phrases or sentences), rhythm (beats, rhymes, pauses, stress, breathing, etc), and meter
(measurement, patterns, lines)
Meter
Tone color – The effects of tone color depend on repetition. This tone color may be repetition of single
sounds, of words or of phrases or sentences. Traditionally poetry has measured rhythm – a regular verse or line pattern whose unit of measure is the
foot. A foot usually contains one accented syllable and one or two unaccented syllables. The most common
a. Repetition of sound is iambic pentameter. An iamb is a unit of meter. Pentameter means five metrical feet. That means a line
with 5 iambs.
Examples: Example: “Shall I /compare/ thee to/ a su/mmer’s day/” (Sonnet 18, Shakespeare)
“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary…” by Edgar Allan Poe. (This is
called Alliteration or the repetition of accented sounds)
Post-Reading Activity 2
“Break, break, break, Knowing the Sound Devices
On thy cold gray stones, O sea! Directions: Read the poem “Family Reunion” by Carlos A. Angeles. Answer the following questions after.
And I would that my tongue could utter
The thoughts that arise in me.
(By Samuel Taylor Coleridge)
Family Reunion
(This is called Assonance, or the effect obtained from the repetition of accented vowel sounds.) Papa called us by our names as we stepped
Carlos A. Angeles
To kiss his hand. And Mama watched, caressing
“Cry, buy; face, place; tomorrow, sorrow; right, write” It must have been a letter send, it must Us with focused love, and spoke the welcome,
(This is called Rhyme or the identical sound from the vowel of the accented syllable) Have been some mute desire made vocable “Welcome!” And us, we wept at such addressing.
At last by word or whisper, or as hummed
b. Repetition of words By someone who was never there at all. Papa was human. He forgot how long
Our absence was, but led us in; and in
The simplest and clearest example of tone color is the repetition a word. Though it may become Must have been; it was not a Holyday. The centered room spoke syllables to us
wearisome, it is one of the most effective in poetry. If you take a look at the example by E.A.Poe, Nor Death: there was not testament to hear, Like love, like love. Mama forgave our sin.
you would notice that he repeated the word “rapping” and if you read the whole text of The Raven, It was as if – no, none cold half-suppose
What purpose we came with, why we were there. Simply by closing the door behind her,
there are quite a number of words that are repeated. And, simply, shut out the outside world.
And here, at last, we prodigals closed in
Like pennants which were being slowly furled.
Another popular example is (although a song) the lyrics of How Far I’ll Go from Moana. 1. Identify the sound device used by the poet. What sound device/s was used by poet? Discuss briefly and cite
“I know everybody on this island seems so happy on this island, everything is by design. I know examples from the poem.
everybody on this island has a role on this island, so maybe I can roll with mine.” 2. Why did the children go to the reunion? What prompted them?
3. Why did the children weep when the father addressed them?
c. Repetition of sentences or Phrases 4. What was their “sin”?
5. Why does the poet call them “prodigals”? What do you think is the symbolism all about?
In a device known as anaphora, a group of words or sentences is repeated for a particular effect.

Rhythm

Prosody is “the total quality of a line’s motion, and is the product of several elements, not of stress and
quantity alone. It is as natural as breathing, the cob and flow of tides, the return of the seasons; it is
immediately experienced and recognized with pleasure, but it eludes definition.

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Lesson 3: Figurative Language in Poetry Paradox – a phrase or statement that on surface seems contradictory but makes some kind of emotional
sense.
Example: “The screaming sound of silence pierced my brain.”
The creation of mental images usually involves the use of figures of speech. A figure speaks of one thing,
usually an abstraction in terms of something else, something concrete and sensory. There is usually an Litotes – a deliberate understatement used to affirm by negating its opposite.
observable association or simply between the thing talked about and the term used. Metaphor is the general Example: “Even this plain dress, I find it not at all displeasing.”
term applied to several figures of association. A metaphor has two parts – the vehicle and tenor. The vehicle
carries the weight of comparison and the tenor is the implied meaning. Oxymoron – putting together in one statement two contradictory terms.
Example: “Such cruel kindness is your love for me.”
There are quite several figures of speech, but only a dozen is frequently used. These are:
Onomatopoeia – the formation or use of words as hiss, buzz, cuckoo, having a sound that imitates what
Simile – it contains of two different ideas or images in comparison and joined by “as” or “like”. they denote.
Example: “My love is like a red red rose, that’s newly sprung in June”

Metaphor – a direct comparison of two things or ideas where the meaning is implied. Post-Reading Activity 3
Example: “Life is a hound, Equivocal Identifying Figures of Speech
Comes to a bound Either to rend me
Or befriend me, I cannot tell. Directions: Read the poems “Inviting a Tiger for a Weekend” by Jose Garcia Villa and “I Don’t Invite the
- R. Francis Tigers, Augustine” by Ricaredo Dometillo. Identify as many figurative languages used in each poem as
possible.
Personification – giving personal/human attributes to inanimate objects or ideas Follow the sample table to organize your answers:
Example: “Leaves got up in a coil and hissed
Blindly struck at my knees and missed.” Word/s / Line/s Figurative language used
1
Apostrophe – a direct address to someone absent, long dead, or even to an inanimate object. 2
Example: “Pack, clouds, away; and welcome, day! 3
With night, we banish sorrow
Sweet air, blow soft; mount, lark, aloft
To give my love good morrow.” Inviting a Tiger for a Weekend I Don’t Invite the Tigers, Augustine
Jose Garcia Villa Ricaredo Dometillo
Metonymy – the substitution of a word that relates to the thing or person to be named for the name itself; or
the use of a closely related thing to represent what is literally meant. Inviting a tiger for a weekend. I don’t invite the tigers, Augustine,
Example: “The crown will have an heir.” (Crown=Ruler) The gesture is not heroics but discipline. For weekend visits and such things.
“I shall read Shakespeare soon enough.” (Shakespeare= works of Shakespeare) The memories will be splendid. I bed with them and know their stripes,
Their deadly fangs and spring.
Synecdoche – the naming of parts to suggest the whole. Proceed to dazzlement, Augustine.
Banish little birds, graduate to tiger. Inviting them is dilettante.
Example: “Show your respect for snowy hair.” (Snowy hair refers to aged/old person)
Proceed to dazzlement, Augustine. To live with them is mastery,
With love and care but sternest whip
Hyperbole – an exaggeration used for artistic effect. Any tiger of whatever colour To make them kneel to me.
Example: “Waves mountain high broke over the reefs.” the same as jewels any stone
Flames always essential morn. I know that pow’r that shook old Blake
Irony – Saying the opposite of what is meant. And other things beside:
Example: “To cry like a baby, a fine way to act for a man your age.” The guest is luminous, peer of Blake. The sudden leap across my mind,
The ghost is gallant, eye of Death. The supple grace and glide!
Allusion – a reference to any literary, religious, historical, mythological, scientific or iconic event, character If you will do this you will break.
or place. How shall I prove this to the world
The little religious for my sake. And you, dear Augustine?
Example: “Be no doubting Thomas or undecided Prince of Denmark.”
Invite a tiger for a weekend, Here, see the scars on heart, on brow:
Proceed to dazzlement, Augustine. The proofs of discipline.
Antithesis – a contrast of words or ideas.
Example: “Look like an innocent flower, but be a serpent underneath.”

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Lesson 4: Identifying the Theme and Tone of a Poem Lesson 5: Historical and Biographical Approaches in Reading Literature

Theme – it is the statement about life a particular work is trying to get across to the reader. It is usually
described as a significant truth about life and human nature that is illustrated in the use of words, images This approach sees a literary work chiefly, if not exclusively, as a reflection of its author's life and
and symbols in the poem, or the persona’s intended actions, preoccupations and decisions. In stating the times or the life and times of the characters in the work. Hippolyte A. Thine a renowned art critic sums up
theme of any literary text, it is important to note the following: the historical and biographical approaches as ‘race, milieu, et moment” (Race, Milieu, and Moment)

➢ It should be expressed in complete statements. Race, Milieu, and Moment: the three principal motives or conditioning factors behind any work of art.
➢ It must be stated as a generalization about life. Taine sought to establish a scientific approach to literature through the investigation of what created the
➢ It must account for all major details of the literary text. individual who created the work of art. The literature of a culture, according to Taine, will show the most
➢ It may be stated in more than one way. sensitive and unguarded displays of motive and the psychology of a people.
➢ It should avoid statements that reduce the theme to some familiar saying or moral.
• By “race” he meant the inherited disposition or temperament that persists stubbornly over
Tone – it is the feeling that the poem has created in the reader. It is communicated by the writer’s or the thousands of years.
speaker’s attitude toward his/her subject, his/her imagined audience, or him/herself. It is the emotional • By “milieu” he meant the circumstances or environment that modify the inherited racial disposition.
coloring of the work. In spoken language, it is indicated by the inflection of the speaker’s voice. A poet • By “moment” Taine meant the momentum of past and present cultural traditions.
may treat his/her subject heroically, piteously, humorously, detachedly, callously, or angrily. It is his/her
attitude that is transmitted in rhythm, sound, image, and so on. In the Historical – Biographical Approaches, the life of the author, the historical events and the values
of his/her age help us understand the work, and in a similar way the literary work gives information of the
author and his own period.
Activity 4:
Interpreting Poems Using Theme and Tone

Directions: Read the poems “I Have Begrudged the Years” by Angela Manalang-Gloria and “I Can No Post-Reading Activity 5
More Hear Love’s” by Jose Garcia Villa. Write a short interpretation of each poem in 3 to 5 paragraphs A Historical-Biographical Analysis of a Poem
(each poem). Quote evidences from the text in making your interpretation.
Directions: Read the short excerpt on the life of
I Have Begrudged the Years Bienvenido Lumbera. Look for evidences on how his
Angela Manalang-Gloria I Can No More Hear Love’s life, his milieu, and his works affect or influences the
Jose Garcia Villa poems “Voyagers on Recto Avenue” and “Servants”.
Perhaps the years will get me after all, Pay attention to the different imagery, symbolism, theme
Though I have sought to cheat them of their due I can no more hear Love's and tone of both poems and how they reflect the life and
By documenting in beauty’s name my soul Voice. No more moves time of Bienvenido Lumbera.
And locking out of sight my revenue The mouth of her. Birds
Of golden rapture and of sterling tears, No more sing. Words
Let others give to Caesar Caesar’s own: I speak return lonely.
Flowers I pick turn ghostly.
I have begrudged the dictatorial years Fire that I burn glows
The right usurious to tax me to the bone, Pale. No more blows
Therefore behold me now, a Timon bent The wind. Time tells Bienvenido Lumbera
On hoarding each coin of love that should be spent No more truth. Bells National Artist for Literature
On you and you, and hushing all display Ring no more in me. April 11, 1932
Of passionate splendour lest I betray I am all alone singly.
My wealth, lest the sharp years in tithes retrieve Lonely rests my head. An esteemed writer who challenged Philippine society’s colonial point of view and restored the poems and
Even the heart not worn upon my sleeve. —— O my God! I am dead. stories of vernacular writers to an esteemed place in the Philippine literary canon

✓ He published his first stories and poems in 1953, the year before he graduated from the University
of Santo Tomas.
✓ A Fulbright Fellowship took him to the University of Indiana where he earned a PhD in
Comparative Literature and wrote a now-classic study of Tagalog poetry.

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 ✓ Stirred by the wave of passionate nationalism sweeping Philippine campuses in the late 1960s, In electing BIENVENIDO LUMBERA to receive the 1993 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism,
Lumbera included more vernacular readings in his literature and drama courses. Literature, and Creative Communication Arts, the Board of Trustees recognizes his asserting the central
✓ Lumbera wrote and lectured prolifically on literature, language, drama, and film. He composed place of the vernacular tradition in framing a national identity for modern Filipinos.
librettos for new musical dramas such as Rama Hari and Bayani.
✓ The RMAF Board of Trustees recognizes his “asserting the central place of the vernacular tradition Biography
in framing a national identity for modern Filipinos.”
After the coffee boom had passed and Lipa had reverted to a placid existence under American rule, the
Few cultures in Asia have been so profoundly affected by contact with the West as that of Filipinos. town still clung to memories of its famous ilustrados of the late Spanish period. As a boy, Bienvenido
Spaniards and Americans brought to the islands, among other things, their own languages and literary Lumbera marveled at Lipa’s elegant old houses with their wide balconies overlooking the streets, so
forms. While Filipinos rejected some foreign elements, they adopted others and formed a unique Asian luxurious compared to his own humbler home just outside town.
culture of their own. Inevitably, perhaps, the higher arts came to be dominated by Western models.
Literature was written in Spanish, or English; everything else was mere Filipiniana. This was the view, at Lumbera was born in Lipa on 11 April 1932. He was barely a year old when his father, Timoteo Lumbera
least, of the academic establishment and most members of the Spanish and English-speaking classes. (a pitcher with a local baseball team), fell from a fruit tree, broke his back, and died. Carmen Lumbera, his
BIENVENIDO LUMBERA has challenged this point of view and restored the poems and stories of mother, suffered from cancer and died a few years later. By the age of five, young Bienvenido, who was
vernacular writers to an esteemed place in the Philippine literary canon. called Beny, was an orphan. He and his older sister were cared for by their paternal grandmother, Eusebia
Teru, whose simple wood and plaited palm-leaf house they shared with a succession of boarders boys from
Born in 1932 in Lipa City, Batangas, LUMBERA attended local schools where his teachers remarked on outlying towns and villages who were attending school in Lipa.
his unusual facility with language. Encouraged, he became an avid reader and entered the University of
Santo Tomas with the hope of becoming a creative writer. He published his first stories and poems in 1953, Grandmother Eusebia, or Tibing, as she was known, was famous locally for her sharp tongue. She was a
the year before he graduated. A Fulbright Fellowship took him to the University of Indiana where he earned stern disciplinarian who, as Lumbera remembers now, “certainly did not spare the rod.” But by taking in
a PhD in Comparative Literature and wrote a now-classic study of Tagalog poetry. lodgers and harvesting fruits and coconuts from some land she owned, she provided well for the children.
Her family was slightly better off than many others in the neighborhood. They owned good hardwood
LUMBERA joined the English Department of Ateneo de Manila University and established himself as a furniture and so much chinaware that neighbors came to borrow plates and serving bowls when a big party
drama critic and leading scholar of Tagalog literature. Aside from a handful of poems, however, everything was at hand. Religious statues under glass domes decorated the parlor and other rooms. Even so, a larger
he published was in English, the medium of instruction at the Ateneo and virtually all other Philippine house next door (with indoor plumbing) and the mansions of Lipa reminded young Beny of his family?s
universities. Stirred by the wave of passionate nationalism sweeping Philippine campuses in the late 1960s, relatively low economic and social standing.
LUMBERA included more vernacular readings in his literature and drama courses. And he began, haltingly,
to deliver some of his lectures in Filipino, the Tagalog-based national language. In 1970 he became chair Source: https://www.rmaward.asia/awardees/lumbera-bienvenido/
of Ateneo’s new department of Philippine Studies and, for the first time,published his own critical essays
and reviews in Filipino.
Voyagers on Recto Avenue And we, commuters that we are,
When Martial Law was declared in 1972, LUMBERA left his post at the Ateneo and went underground. Bienvenido Lumbera think censure of their levity.
Captured in 1974, he spent nearly a year in detention, frankly relishing the companionship of his like- Office girls will nurse corns
minded detainees. Two years after his release, he was named professor in the Department of Filipino and It takes a daring voyager and husbands seek slippers and sex-
to occupy that island there. such mundane chores as night presents
Philippine Literature at the University of the Philippines.
Grass that mats the strip of dirt cannot concern these kids who track the changeless
Seems to sulk its roots on earth. course of hardy stars
Years of startling productivity followed. LUMBERA wrote and lectured prolifically on literature, language, among the city’s vapor lamps.
But three brown girls sprawl as though
drama, and film. He composed librettos for new musical dramas such as Rama Hari and Bayani. He It is enough that in the wash
the island were a luxury rug
published three award-winning books of criticism and, with his wife Cynthia, an anthology of Philippine endorsed by Good Housekeeping in Life of horns and hawker’s cries, three friends
literature. He moved actively in literary circles and organizations, edited journals, and contributed (non-allergic oh soft like dawn). have found a private continent.
introductions to dozens of books written by his friends and former students. As a teacher he mentored a For sure, blades of grass will cut simple as laughter or hunger pains,
new generation of literary scholars imbued with his own love for the country’s rich artistic traditions and Less keenly than a bed of nails. their game is probably profound.
languages. These girls don’t care at any rate- Those fingers compassing the stars
Somewhere the pushcart has been parked perhaps described the Pleiades?
where the grouchy cooks at midnight pile Those stars (or so an elder’s tale
Language, says LUMBERA, is the key to national identity. Until Filipino becomes the true lingua-franca
a charity of rancid cans. once told) are really silver coins
of the Philippines, he believes, the gap between the well-educated classes and the vast majority of Filipinos the raving Judas cast away.
cannot be bridged. “As long as we continue to use English,” he says,”our scholars and academics will be They mapped the grounds for play,
and fanciful cosmography Kids are somehow sinister,
dependent on other thinkers,” and Filipino literature will be judged by Western standards and not, as it slier than the ancient voyagers.
consigned the island to their claim.
should be, by the standards of the indigenous tradition itself. Discerning such standards is an important part The bundy clock ticks off our lives Who knows? Maybe they have devised
of LUMBERA’s work. He is learning, say his students, to see Filipino literature through Filipino eyes. and instant soup turns watery a plot of plundering the sky.
while traffic stalls. What do they care?

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Servant Term Paper for Poetry:
Bienvenido Lumbera
Select one theme from the options below:
On the shut door of the mind
We knock, we of soul and body torn; A. Stereotypes and Oppression in the 90s: Historical-Biographical Analysis
We who serve and are ignored, of Jaime An Lim’s “Short Time” and Joi Barrios’ “Rape”
Broken into pieces to be of use.
Our heads nod, our arms lift,
Things to look for: B. Art as a Weapon for Revolution: A Historical-Biographical Analysis of Emmanuel Lacaba’s
Our feet are quick, our faces turn:
We scatter our parts to the beck ✓ Look for key images and symbolisms in “Open Letters to Filipino Artists” and Carlos Bulosan’s If You Want to Know What We Are.”
And call of those higher than us. the poems. Were there possible
Deep within, we have a name, connections to Lumbera’s personal life,
A story to tell. Against a harsh life education, interests, or socio-political
We’ve put up a fight, only and religious background? Directions:
To end up with a servant’s life. ✓ Look for the themes of each poems.
We serve the strong, we are How does that reflect Philippine society 1. Write an analysis paper of 700 words (minimum) using Historical – Biographical Approaches.
Feet and arms wanting to climb, in the 1950s to 1960s?
Heads and faces used to fool the law, ✓ Look for the figures of speech used. Are 2. The analysis paper should include the following.
Will we be whole again tomorrow?
there metaphors that symbolizes
Up ahead the new day shines,
The change-of-fate we seek— Filipino-ness, Filipino identity, struggle, a. Identifying the theme and tone of each poem and how it connects to the historical and/or
Then we shall rise again, culture, etc? biographical background of the poet and their time.
With our names and bodies back. ✓ Look for the emotion suggested in the b. Highlighting symbolisms that reflect the milieu of the poets.
tone of the persona of each poem. How c. Citing elements such as imagery, figure of speech, sound devices, among many, to enrich
does that reflect Lumbera (and the the discussion of the analysis.
Filipinos) during the 50s and 60s? d. Researching on important historical and biographical information significant in the
poems.

3. You will be graded by your ability to use:

a. Literary Information (Ability to appropriately use different elements of poetry)

b. Literary Interpretation (ability to derive meaning from the text by looking at denotations
and connotations, imagery and symbolisms, and creating meanings from the text)
c. Literary Analysis (Ability to use historical-biographical approaches.)

4. Paper should be submitted using short bond paper (letter: 21.59x27.94 cm), Times New Roman
(only. No other font) 11 font size, single-spaced. Create your own title (do not use the titles
above)

5. Deadline is indicated in the Course Information Booklet

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 Open Letters to Filipino Artists
Short Time Rape Emmanuel Lacaba
Jaime An Lim Joi Barrios
A poet must also learn how to lead an attack.
I am haunted by the sadness of men Prepare the evidence. - Ho Chi Minh
hanging out at night
in all parks and alleys of the world. Exhibit #1: a knife, gun
They wait and meander or any weapon, I
weighing proof of threat. Invisible the mountain routes to strangers: III
measuring the safer distance For rushing toes an inch-wide strip on boulders We are tribeless and all tribes are ours.
between dread Exhibit #2: Blood – stained underwear, And for the hand that's free a twig to grasp, We are homeless and all homes are ours.
and desire. proof of maiden’s virginity. Or else we headlong fall below to rocks We are nameless and all names are ours.
Every face a catalog of possibilities, And waterfalls of death so instant that To the fascists we are the faceless enemy
every look a whole vocabulary of need. Exhibit #3: Doctor’s certificate, Too soon they're red with skulls of carabaos. Who come like thieves in the night, angels of death:
proof of: The ever moving, shining, secret eye of the storm.
Tonight, you are the dream forced entry; But patient guides and teachers are the masses:
who walks in my waking sleep, complete penetration. Of forty mountains and a hundred rivers; The road less traveled by we've taken –
who bears miraculously Of plowing, planting, weeding, and the harvest; And that has made all the difference:
the shape voice motion of remembered love. Exhibit #4: Certificate of good moral character, And of a dozen dialects that dwarf The barefoot army of the wilderness
How can I resist the reckless proof that the victim is no whore. This foreign tongue we write each other in We all should be in time. Awakened, the masses
Who must transcend our bourgeois origins. are Messiah.
Leap of the world Bring the defendant to the court. Here among workers and peasants our lost
of furtive bushes and tunnelling headlights, Bring the plaintiff to the stand. South Cotabato Generation has found its true, its only home.
to this room, no less anonymous, Begin the rape. May 1,1975
of thin walls, thinning mattresses, Davao del Norte
where we grapple and thrash II January 1976
like beached sea creatures You want to know, companions of my youth
breathing the dry unfamiliar air? How much has changed the wild but shy young poet
Forever writing last poem after last poem;
When we stand to go, I ease myself You hear he's dark as earth, barefoot,
into the hollow your body leaves. A turban round his head, a bolo at his side,
I press the faint smell of you to my face. His ballpen blown up to a long-barreled gun:
Deeper still the struggling change inside.
O Christ, were I loving you
drinking your blood, eating your flesh! Like husks of coconut he tears away
But the morning betrays nothing. The billion layers of his selfishness.
The chair in the corner stands mute, Or learns to cage his longing like the bird
the mirror repeats your absence. Of legend, fire, and song within his chest.
When the curtains are flung back Now of consequence is his anemia
to let the harsh light in, From lack of sleep: no longer for Bohemia,
the bed looms empty. The lumpen culturati, but for the people, yes.

I am finally all I have. He mixes metaphors but values more

A holographic and geometric memory
For mountains: not because they are there
But because the masses are there where
Routes are jigsaw puzzles he must piece together.
Though he has been called a brown Rimbaud,
He is no bandit but a people's warrior.

South Cotabato and Davao del Norte

November 1975

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If You Want to Know What We Are
Carlos Bulosan

I. II.
If you want to know what we are who inhabit If you want to know what we are, observe
forest, mountain and rivershore, who harness the bloody club smashing heads, the bayonet
beast, living steel, martial music (that classless penetrating hallowed breasts, giving no mercy;
language of the heart), who celebrate labor, watch the bullet crashing upon armorless citizens;
wisdom of the mind, peace of the blood; look at the tear-gas choking the weakened lungs.
If you want to know what we are who become If you want to know what we are, see the lynch
animate at the rain’s metallic ring, the stone’s trees blossoming, the hysterical mob rioting;
accumulated strength, who tremble in the wind’s remember the prisoner beaten by detectives to
blossoming (that enervates earth’s potentialities), confess
who stir just as flowers unfold to the sun; a crime he did not commit because he was honest,
If you want to know what we are who grow and who stood alone before a rabid jury of ten men,
powerful and deathless in countless counterparts, And who was sentenced to hang by a judge
each part pregnant with hope, each hope supreme, whose bourgeois arrogance betrayed the office
each supremacy classless, each classlessness he claimed his own; name the marked man
nourished by unlimited splendor of comradeship; the violator of secrets; observe the banker,
We are multitudes the world over, millions the gangster, the mobsters who kill and go free;
everywhere; We are the sufferers who suffer for natural love
in violent factories, sordid tenements, crowded cities; of man for man, who commemorate the humanities
in skies and seas and rivers, in lands everywhere; of every man; we are the toilers who toil
our number increase as the wide world revolves to make the starved earth a place of abundance
and increases arrogance, hunger, disease and death. who transform abundance into deathless fragrance.
We are the men and women reading books, searching We are the desires of anonymous men everywhere,
in the pages of history for the lost word, the key who impregnate the wide earth’s lustrous wealth
to the mystery of living peace, imperishable joy; with a gleaming florescence; we are the new thoughts
we are factory hands field hands mill hand and the new foundations, the new verdure of the
everywhere, mind;
molding creating building structures, forging ahead, we are the new hope new joy life everywhere.
Reaching for the future, nourished in the heart; We are the vision and the star, the quietus of pain;
we are doctors scientists chemists discovering we are the terminals of inquisition, the hiatuses
eliminating disease and hunger and antagonisms; of a new crusade; we are the subterranean subways
we are soldiers navy-men citizens guarding of suffering; we are the will of dignities;
the imperishable will of man to live in grandeur. we are the living testament of a flowering race.
We are the living dream of dead men everywhere, If you want to know what we are—
the unquenchable truth that class memories create WE ARE THE REVOLUTION!
to stagger the infamous world with prophecies
of unlimited happiness—a deathless humanity;
we are the living and the dead men everywhere …

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