PHILIPPINE

POETRY: ITS
FORM,
LANGUAGE AND
SPEECH
Poetry and the Philippines is not different
from its other counterparts around the
world. In the early 1900, Filipino poetry
celebrated romanticism, and several poems
about love flourished. Eventually, as the
years went on, poetry became more
formalist, the emphasis of the poetry is more
on the form and language that the poet used,
rather than the theme itself. Then, modern
poetry sprouted, and nowadays, writers are
more adventurous in their craft.
Elements of poetry
1. Senses and Images -are used by the writer to describe their
impressions of their topic or object of writing. The writer uses carefully
chosen and phrased words to create an imagery that the reader can see
through his or her senses. The kinds of sense impressions in poetry are
categorized in mainly the following: visual imagery (what the writer
wants you to see ); olfactory imagery( what the writer wants you to
smell ) ; gustatory imagery( what the writer wants you to taste ); tactile
imagery ( what the writer wants you to feel ) ; and auditory imagery
( what the writer wants you to hear )
2. Diction -another important element in Filipino poetry. Filipino writers
are very careful of the way they write and the words they use to form their
poems. Diction is the denotative and connotative meaning of the words in
a sentence, phrase, paragraph or poem.
3. Rhyme scheme -the way the author arranges words, meters, lines,
and stanzas to create a coherent sound when the poem is read out loud. It
may be formal or informal, depending on the way the poem was
Senses, imagery, diction, and rhyme scheme are emphasized
in this canonical poem, ―Gabu‖, one of the most widely read
local poems in English by Carlos Angeles.
Carlos Angeles
He was born on 25 of May 1921 in Tacloban, Leyte. He finished
his undergrad degree in the University of the Philippines and
his work has been included in poetry anthologies in the
United States. His poetry collection, Stun of Jewels, won the
Republic Cultural Heritage Award in Literature back in 1964;
he also won the Don Carlos Palanca memorial Awards in
poetry in the same year. He is an active member of many
Filipino-American press clubs in the US, where he currently
resides. His poem, ―Gabu‖, is said to be one of the most well-
loved Filipino poems written in English.
 Gabu
By Carlos Angeles
 
The battering restlessness of the sea Insists a tidal fury upon the
beach At Gabu, and its pure consistency
Havocs the wasteland hard within its reach.
 Brutal the day long bashing of its heart Against the seascape
where, for miles around,
 Farther than sight itself, the rock-stones part And drop into the
elemental wound.
 The waste of centuries in grey and dead
And neutral where the sea has beached its brine,
 Where the spilt salt of its heart lies spread Among the dark
habiliments of Time.
 The vital splendor misses. For there, here At Gabu where the
ageless tide recurs
-6-
All things forfeited are most loved and dear. It is the sea
pursues a habit of shores.
Marjorie Evasco
She was born in Bohol on 21 of September
1953. She writes bilingually in English and
Cebuano-Visayan, and is considered one of the
country‘s earliest feminist poets. She has
received numerous awards for her poetry, and
in 2010, she received the prestigious South
East Asian Write Award ( SEA Write ). She is
currently a professor emeritus of De la Salle
University – Manila.
 Is It the Kingfisher?
By Marjorie Evasco

This is how I desire god on this island With you today: basic and blue
As the sea that softens our feet with salt And brings the living wave to our
mouths Playing with sounds of a primary language.
―God is blue,‖ sang the poet Juan Ramon Jimenez, Drunk with desiring, his
hair, eyebrows,
Eyelashes turned blue as the kingfisher‘s wings. It is this bird that greets us
as we come.
 
Round the eastern bend of this island;
Tells us the hairbreadth boundary between us Is transient as the air,
permeable to the blue Of tropic skies and mountain gentian.
Where we sit on this rock covered with seaweeds, I suddenly feel the
blueness embrace us,
The distance between us
We have longed to be. A bolt of burning blue Light in my brain, gives the
answer
We‘ve pursued this whole day:
Seawaves sing it, the kingfisher flies in it, The island is rooted in it. Desiring
God is transparent blue – the color This makes our souls visible.
Cirilo Bautista
He was born in 1941 and is a well-known poet,
fictionist, critic and nonfiction writer. After receiving a
writing fellowship at the International Writing
Program in the University of Iowa, he received an
honorary degree and was the only Filipino to be
honored there. He has taught in De La Salle University
– Manila and is currently a professor emeritus.
Recently, he was awarded as a National Artist for
Literature by the Philippine government.
 
 On How to Find Silence in the World
By Cirilo Bautista
 
Being spotted in the color of skin, Why I take care in San
Francisco, Waiting for the bus to Iowa,
They say racial prejudice is strong.
 
Negros and not whites kawawa, And because of this they will
revolt.
 
I shiver and shiver from fear and hunger Because I just landed
from Tokyo
 
A Negro came into the station-----
Naka-African hairdo; he holds a small whip; It‘s scary to look,
so
I did not look at him. Kumakalansing
the metal on the strings of his shoes
and he shouts, ―peace, brothers!‖ smiled showing white
teeth. Looked at me-----
maybe he laughed at what he saw
a tiny dayuhan, dark and from some lupalop. Upside down
my insides
Went in fright and pulled a cigarette
So the redness of my face wouldn‘t show
I nahalata that the Whites there too were quiet so quiet,
unable to speak in front of that Negro Only when he left
returned
 
the normalcy in the station others
read again, neighbors gossiped again. After a while that
Negro passed again two white Americans on each arm,
blonde, their beauty with no equal.
The janitor stopped sweeping.
I thought, ―So this is racial prejudice‖.
Activity 1:
1. Interpret each stanza of the poem Gabu.
2.If you were the “sea” in this poem, why do
you keep pursuing the shore?
3. Identify the importance of each elements of
poetry.
4.What element of poetry can help you in
reading and understanding a poem?
5. How does the poem Gabu affect ones
sensory?
Activity 2:
1. Describe the writer of is it the
Kingfisher?
2.What does the poem is it the Kingfisher
show?
3. What are the relationship show in the
poem is it the Kingfisher?
4.How does the writer communicate to
God?
5. Interpret the poem is it the Kingfisher?
Activity 3
1. How would you feel if you were discriminated
because of your physical appearance? Explain it.
2. Do you think it is fair to be discriminated because
of the way you look? Why?
3. What does it mean to be racially discriminated?
4. Is racial prejudice still prevalent in the world as of
now? Explain it.
5. Interpret the poem On How to Find Silence in the
World.
•Assessment Activity
A. Research about Ilocos and its beaches,
think which one Carlos Angeles is talking
about in
―Gabu‖.
Use the poem‘s imagery as clues to pinpoint
the beach mentioned here. Afterwards, draw
your visual imagery of Gabu as described in
the poem.
B. Search for 10 verses in the Bible.