METRICAL ROMANCE- is a type of prose poem that was especially popular during the Renaissance.

These poems do not rhyme and deal with themes such as love, rites of passage, chivalry, adventure
and interpersonal relationships. Knights, fair maidens and epic journeys appear frequently in metrical
romance poems.

NARRATIVE POETRY- tells a story in verse form. It is a relatively long form of poetry that contains
all of the necessary elements for a story, including plot, characters, setting, theme, and dialogue.
Narrative poems generally rhyme, make use of regular meter, or play with sound through assonance
and alliteration.

NARRATIVE PROSE- refers to any form of writing in which the work is prose, as opposed to poetry,
and tells a definite story through actions. This style of prose is used for most modern fiction and
historical literature.

IBONG ADARNA
 Once upon a time, there was a kingdom named, Berbania. It was ruled by King Fernando and
Queen Valeriana who had three sons – Don Pedro (first born), Don Diego (second) and Don Juan
(the youngest).

One night, King Fernando had a bad dream. He saw that his youngest Prince and his favorite, Don
Juan was thrown away in a creepy deep well. The King started to get weak for some unknown
reasons. It seemed that nothing could bring back his healthy condition. His medical advisors told him
that the only cure to his unexplained sickness is a lullaby sung by the Adarna bird.

So King Fernando tasked his three sons to hunt the magical bird. Don Pedro went first but he wasn’t
successful. He may have reached Mount Tabor and the tree of Piedras Platas where the Adarna bird
nested but the prince fell asleep after hearing the bird’s song. Worse he turned into a stone when the
lovely bird pooped on him. The second prince, Don Diego went to hunt next. Unfortunately, he had
the same bitter chance like his older brother. The kingdom was counting on Don Juan, so he went
next.

The youngest prince has climbed through Mount Tabor. He met a very old sick man who gave him
tips about the magical tree of Piedras Platas and catching the Adarna bird. Don Juan successfully
caught the bird and helped his two brothers to be human again. Because of envy and greed of
power, the two joined forces to beat Don Juan to death and throw him in a deep well. The two then
returned home with the Adarna. However, the king’s illness went worse because the bird never sang
a single song.

Luckily, Don Juan’s strength returned. He has been healed by the poor old man he helped in the
mountain. He came back to the Kingdom of Berbania. King Fernando has known the truth when the
bird started singing after seeing Don Juan. The King went well and stronger than ever. He wanted to
punish his two sons but Don Juan asked his father to just forgive them. The King granted his request
and asked the three princes to guard the Adarna bird. Because of Don Pedro, the bird flew away and
escaped. Don Juan went away from the kingdom so the king won’t punish his brother.

King Fernando asked the two princes to look for Don Juan. They found him in the kingdom of
Armenia. They decided to live there. One day they found an interesting well. Only Don Juan went
down inside successfully. He found two lovely princesses, Donya Juana and Donya Leonora captive
by a giant serpent. Because of his skills in fighting, the mighty prince has killed the serpent and
saved the two princesses. Don Pedro envied the young prince. He cut the rope when the prince went
down inside the well to get the ring Donya Leonora has forgotten. Anyway, it was easy for Don Diego
to make Donya Juana to fall in love with him. So when they came back to Berbania, they married. On
the other hand, Don Pedro did everything to pursue Donya Leonora but he failed.

An enchanted fox helped Don Juan and he was quickly healed. The Adarna bird appeared suddenly
and told him about the princess of Reyno delos Cristales, his love destiny. He immediately searched
for the princess and found out about the cruel King Salermo. In spite of the obstacles the cruel king
has given him, he faced them all and succeeded with the help of Maria Blanca, daughter of King
Salermo. Because of the selfish king, the two tried to escape. Maria Blanca was cursed to be crawling
like a snail and be forgotten by the prince Don Juan.

Don Juan has returned to Berbania where he was welcomed by his mother, Queen Valeriana and
Princess Leonora. He has forgotten about Maria Blanca because of Princess Leonora. Don Juan and
Princess Leonora were scheduled to wed. At the day of the wedding, Maria Blanca visited wearing the
emperatris. She tried to bring back all the memories and remind Don Juan about their love. Finally,
Don Juan and Princess Maria Blanca got married while Princess Leonora married Don Pedro. In the
end, Don Pedro became the new king of Berbania while Don Juan became the king of Reyno delos
Cristales.

Ibong Adarna Author: Jose Dela Cruz

Ibong Adarna Characters:
King Fernando, Queen Valeriana, Don Pedro, Don Diego, Don Juan, Donya Juana, Donya
Leonora, Donya Maria Blanca, King Salermo.

FLORANTE AND LAURA

On a faraway vast land, there’s a mystical forest outside the Kingdom of Albanya. Florante,
son of Duke Briseo and Princess Floresca, was knotted tightly on a giant old tree in the middle of the
dark forest. Sadness and emptiness crept around the helpless Prince. The scary woods and uncanny
sounds of wild animals and creatures just didn’t help.

Just before two huge lions were about to ravish the poor Prince, a kindhearted Persian Morong,
Aladin, helped Florante. Aladin was on exile from his own kingdom because of his father’s cruelty. His
father, Ali-Adab, took his lovely fiancé away from him. On his way to the woods, he heard Florante’s
scream trying to seek help from the lions nearly killing him.

The two became good friends and they started to talk about their past and what brought them there
in the woods. Florante told Aladin his true identity – a prince of Albanya. He also told his new friend
about his another near-death experience involving a giant crow which was killed by his cousin,
Menalipo, his school days at Atenas where he met Adolfo whom from the beginning was his rival.
Adolfo tried to kill Florante during their school play, the latter was rescued by Menandro, nephew of
their kind professor – Antenor. Because of that terrible incident, Adolfo decided to go back home in
Albanya.

One day in Atenas, a sad news came to Florante about the death of his mother. After two months,
the Prince went back home in Albanya.

In Albanya, Duke Briseo and King Linseo, father of Laura, gathered a meeting about their defense
against the troops of Persian General Osmalik. Osmalik ruined the Kingdom of Kotrona. According to
the King, he dreamt of a clever powerful Prince who looked like Florante, their only weapon to beat
Osmalik.

Florante instantly fell in love with Laura seeing her beauty. In his three days stay at their palace, he
never had the chance to talk to the Princess. He only had few moments with her when he was
prepared to battle. The princess only sent her tears and hopes.

Florante and Laura Author: Francisco Balagtas

Florante at Laura Characters:
Florante, Laura, Aladdin, Flerida, Adolfo, Duke Briseo, Princess Floresca, King Linseo,
Sultan Ali-Adab, Osmalik, Menandro, Miramolin, Menalipo, Antenor.
 NOLI ME TANGERE
Juan Crisostomo Ibarra is a young Filipino who, after studying for seven years in Europe,
returns to his native land to find that his father, a wealthy landowner, has died in prison as the result
of a quarrel with the parish curate, a Franciscan friar named Padre Damaso. Ibarra is engaged to a
beautiful and accomplished girl, Maria Clara, the supposed daughter and only child of the rich Don
Santiago de los Santos, commonly known as “Capitan Tiago.”

Ibarra resolves to forego all quarrels and to work for the betterment of his people. To show his good
intentions, he seeks to establish, at his own expense, a public school in his native town. He meets
with ostensible support from all, especially Padre Damaso’s successor, a young and gloomy
Franciscan named Padre Salvi, for whom Maria Clara confesses to an instinctive dread.

At the laying of the cornerstone for the new schoolhouse, a suspicious accident, apparently aimed at
Ibarra’s life, occurs, but the festivities proceed until the dinner, where Ibarra is grossly and wantonly
insulted over the memory of his father by Fray Damaso. The young man loses control of himself and
is about to kill the friar, who is saved by the intervention of Maria Clara.

Ibarra is excommunicated, and Capitan Tiago, through his fear of the friars, is forced to break the
engagement and agree to the marriage of Maria Clara with a young and inoffensive Spaniard
provided by Padre Damaso. Obedient to her reputed father’s command and influenced by her
mysterious dread of Padre Salvi, Maria Clara consents to this arrangement, but becomes seriously ill,
only to be saved by medicines sent secretly by Ibarra and clandestinely administered by a girl friend.

Ibarra succeeds in having the excommunication removed, but before he can explain matters, an
uprising against the Civil Guard is secretly brought about through agents of Padre Salvi, and the
leadership is ascribed to Ibarra to ruin him. He is warned by a mysterious friend, an outlaw called
Elias, whose life he had accidentally saved; but desiring first to see Maria Clara, he refuses to make
his escape, and when the outbreak page occurs, he is arrested as the instigator of it and thrown into
prison in Manila.

On the evening when Capitan Tiago gives a ball in his Manila house to celebrate his supposed
daughter’s engagement, Ibarra makes his escape from prison and succeeds in seeing Maria Clara
alone. He begins to reproach her because it is a letter written to her before he went to Europe which
forms the basis of the charge against him, but she clears herself of treachery to him. The letter had
been secured from her by false representations and in exchange for two others written by her mother
just before her birth, which prove that Padre Damaso is her real father. These letters had been
accidentally discovered in the convento by Padre Salvi, who made use of them to intimidate the girl
and get possession of Ibarra’s letter, from which he forged others to incriminate the young man. She
tells him that she will marry the young Spaniard, sacrificing herself thus to save her mother’s name
and Capitan Tiago’s honor and to prevent a public scandal, but that she will always remain true to
him.

Ibarra’s escape had been effected by Elias, who conveys him in a banka up the Pasig to the Lake,
where they are so closely beset by the Civil Guard that Elias leaps into the water and draws the
pursuers away from the boat, in which Ibarra lies concealed.
On Christmas Eve, at the tomb of the Ibarras in a gloomy wood, Elias appears, wounded and dying,
to find there a boy named Basilio beside the corpse of his mother, a poor woman who had been
driven to insanity by her husband’s neglect and abuses on the part of the Civil Guard, her younger
son having page disappeared some time before in the convento, where he was a sacristan. Basilio,
who is ignorant of Elias’s identity, helps him to build a funeral pyre, on which his corpse and the
madwoman’s are to be burned.

Upon learning of the reported death of Ibarra in the chase on the Lake, Maria Clara becomes
disconsolate and begs her supposed godfather, Fray Damaso, to put her in a nunnery. Unconscious
of her knowledge of their true relationship, the friar breaks down and confesses that all the trouble
he has stirred up with the Ibarras has been to prevent her from marrying a native, which would
condemn her and her children to the oppressed and enslaved class. He finally yields to her entreaties
and she enters the nunnery of St. Clara, to which Padre Salvi is soon assigned in a ministerial
capacity.

Author of Noli Me Tangere: Dr. Jose Rizal

Characters Of Noli Me Tangere: Crisostomo Ibarra, Elias, Kapitan Tiago, Maria Clara,
Dona Victorina, Pia Alba, Don Tiburcio, Gobernador Heneral, Alfonso Linares, Alferez,
Pilosopo Tasyo, Padre Sibyla, Padre Salvi, Padre Damaso, Crispin, Basilio, Sisa, Dona
Consolacion.

EL FILIBUSTERISMO

This novel is a sequel to the Noli. It has a little humor, less idealism, and less romance than
the Noli Me Tangere. It is more revolutionary and more tragic than the first novel.

The hero of El Filibusterismo is a rich jeweler named Simoun. He was Crisostomo Ibarra of the Noli,
who, with Elias’ help, escaped from the pursuing soldiers at Laguna de Bay, dug up his buried
treasure, and fled to Cuba where he became rich and befriended many Spanish officials. After many
years he returned to the Philippines, where he freely moved around. He is a powerful figure not only
because he is a rich jeweler but also because he is a good friend and adviser of the governor general.

Outwardly, Simoun is a friend of Spain. However deep in his heart, he is secretly cherishing a terrible
revenge against the Spanish authorities. His two magnificent obsessions are to rescue Maria Clara
from the nunnery of Santa Clara and to foment a revolution against the hated Spanish masters.

The story of El Filibusterismo begins on board the clumsy, roundish shaped steamer Tabo, so
appropriately named. This steamer is sailing upstream the Pasig from Manila to Laguna de Bay.
Among the passengers are Simoun, the rich jeweler; Doña Victorina, the ridiculously pro-Spanish
native woman who is going to Laguna in search of her henpecked husband, Tiburcio de Espadaña,
who has deserted her; Paulita Gomez, her beautiful niece; Ben-Zayb (anagram of Ibañez), a Spanish
journalist who writes silly articles about the Filipinos; Padre Sibyla, vice-rector of the University of
Santo Tomas; Padre Camorra, the parish priest of the town of Tiani; Don Custodio, a pro-spanish
Filipino holding a position in the government; Padre Salvi, thin Franciscan friar and former cura of
San Diego; Padre Irene, a kind friar who was a friend of the Filipino students; Padre Florentino, a
retired scholarly and patriotic Filipino priest; Isagani, a poet-nephew of Padre Florentino and a lover
of Paulita; and Basilio, son of Sisa and promising medical student, whose medical education is
financed by his patron, Capitan Tiago.

Simoun, a man of wealth and mystery, is a very close friend and confidante of the Spanish governor
general. Because of his great influence in Malacañang, he was called the “Brown Cardinal” or the
“Black Eminence”. By using his wealth and political influence, he encourages corruption in the
government, promotes the oppression of the masses, and hastens the moral degradation of the
country so that the people may become desperate and fight. He smuggles arms into the country with
the help of a rich Chinese merchant, Quiroga, who wants very much to be Chinese consul of Manila.
His first attempt to begin the armed uprising did not materialize because at the last hour he hears the
sad news that Maria Clara died in the nunnery. In his agonizing moment of bereavement, he did not
give the signal for the outbreak of hostilities.

After a long time of illness brought about by the bitter loss of Maria Clara, Simoun perfects his plan to
overthrow the government. On the occasion of the wedding of Paulita Gomez and Juanito Pelaez, he
gives a wedding gift to them a beautiful lamp. Only he and his confidential associates, Basilio (Sisa’s
son who joined his revolutionary cause), know that when the wick of his lamp burns lower the
nitroglycerine, hidden in its secret compartment, will explode, destroying the house where the
wedding feast is going to be held killing all the guests, including the governor general, the friars, and
the government officials. Simultaneously, all the government buildings in Manila will be blown by
Simoun’s followers.

As the wedding feast begins, the poet Isagani, who has been rejected by Paulita because of his
liberal ideas, is standing outside the house, watching sorrowfully the merriment inside. Basilio, his
friend, warns him to go away because the lightened lamp will soon explode.

Upon hearing the horrible secret of the lamp, Isagani realizes that his beloved Paulita was in grave
danger. To save her life, he rushes into the house, seizes the lightened lamp, and hurls it into the
river, where it explodes.

The revolutionary plot was thus discovered. Simoun was cornered by the soldiers, but he escaped.
Mortally wounded, and carrying his treasure chest, he sought refuge in the home of Padre Florentino
by the sea.

The Spanish authorities, however, learns of his presence in the house of Padre Florentino. Lieutenant
Perez of the Guardia Civil informs the priest by letter that he would come at eight o’clock that night
to arrest Simoun.

Simoun eluded arrest by taking poison. As he is dying, he confesses to Padre Florentino, revealing his
true identity, his dastardly plan to use his wealth to avenge himself, and his sinister aim to destroy
his friends and enemies.

The confession of the dying Simoun is long and painful. It is already night when Padre Florentino,
wiping the sweat from his wrinkled brow, rises and begins to meditate. He consoles the dying man
saying: “God will forgive you Señor Simoun. He knows that we are fallible. He has seen that you have
suffered, and in ordaining that the chastisement for your faults should come as death from the very
ones you have instigated to crime, we can see His infinite mercy. He has frustrated your plans one by
one, the best conceived, first by the death of Maria Clara, then by a lack of preparation, then in some
mysterious way. Let us bow to His will and render Him thanks!”
Watching Simoun die peacefully with a clear conscience and at peace with God. Padre Florentino falls
upon his knees and prays for the dead jeweler. He takes the treasure chest and throws it into the
sea; as the waves close over the sinking chest.

Author of El Filibusterismo: Dr. Jose Rizal

Characters of El Filibusterismo: Simoun, Bsilio, Isagani, Kabesang Tales, Don Custodio, Paulita
Gomez, Father Florentino, Huli, Ben Zayb, Placido Penitente, Quiroga, Old Man Selo, Father
Fernandez, Attorney Pasta, Captain-General, Padre Sibyla.