PHILIPPINE POETRY

Centuries before the Spaniards came, the Filipinos already had their own
culturaltraditions, folklore, mythologies and epics. There were substantial writings
by earlynatives that Jesuit historian Fr. Pedro Chirino noted:

"All of the islanders are much givento reading and writing. And there is hardly a
man, much less a woman who did not read and write." 

(Relacion de las isles Filipinas-1604)Stories of epics, done in poetry displayed

tremendous vitality, color andimagination. Tales of love and adventures about
native heroes, endowed with powersfrom the gods, battle monsters, and triumphs
over formidable armies, rode the wind, traveled in flying shields and protect the
earliest communities of the islands.Established epic poems of notable quality and
length blossomed. And earlyhistorians like Padre Colin, Joaquin Martinez de Zuniga
and Antonio Pigafetta have allattested to the existence of these epics. There were
even reports of a dramatic playgiven by natives at the arrival of Don Miguel Lopez
de Legaspi in 1565.Epic poems and songs about the exploits of enchanted folk
heroes wereperformed during festivities and proper occasions. Most often, these
epic poems (folkepics or ethno-epics) were titled after the names of the hero
involved, except for somewhich carry traditional titles like the Kalinga Ullalim; the
Sulod Hinilawod; the MaranaoDarangan; or the Bicol Ibalon.Stories about folk
heroes of long ago were described as "Old Time History" because; they can be used
to study the lifestyle and beliefs of the people who producedthem. They were also
referred to as "Lost", because they were soon forgotten bynatives influenced
heavily by Spanish and "western" colonization. The famed orientalist, Chauncey
Starkweather, stressed that: "These epic romances are charming poem inthe
Malayan literature."  But there are those who perpetuated myths that in the early
days of Spanishintrusion, priests in their zealous rage against paganism destroyed
all existing records, as well as all forms of writing and art works, regarding ancient
Philippine folk heroes.But this is not true. The colorful and fascinating literature of
pre-Hispanic Filipinos arestill here. Giving the new generation an over view of a
heritage that is an unusual andinvaluable source of joy and information. Regarding
the life style, love and aspirations of early Filipinos. It is from these, wonderful
epics, where a Filipino can find his or her national identity.The history of Philippine
poetry can be described in four major literary periods:precolonial (before 1521),
Spanish colonial (1521±1898), U.S. colonial (1898±1946),and contemporary
(1946±present). A strong indigenous oral tradition is interwoven withthe Spanish
and U.S. colonial influences of culture and language. Poetry has beenwritten in
Tagalog (the national language) and in the eighty-seven regional dialects, as well
as in the Castilian Spanish of Miguel de Cervantes and Lope de Vega and
the American English of Walt Whitman and Mark Twain.

PRECOLONIAL POETRY 

 An indigenous oral tradition of bugtong (riddles) and sawikain (proverbs) played

acentral part of community life in villages of precolonial Philippines. Short four-line
poemscalled tanaga evolved from this oral tradition. Each line contained seven or
eightsyllables, and at the heart of the poem was a cryptic metaphor called a
talinghaga. Popular folk musical verse was divided into several categories:
thediona, talindao, and auit (songs sung at home); indolanin and dolayanin (street
songs); hila, soliranin, and manigpasin (rowing songs); holohorlo and oyayi (cradle
songs); ombayi  (songs of sadness); omiguing (songs of tenderness);
tagumpay (triumphant songs); dopayanin (boat songs); Hiliriao (drinking songs);
and Diona (wedding songs). Through theseverses the local history, politics, and
culture were passed from generation to generation.The most skilled poets would
memorize epic cycles that took two to four days to reciteduring all-night dramatic
performances. Two examples of precolonial epics that survivetoday are Biag ni
Lam-ang (Legend of Lamang) in Ilocano (a northern Luzon dialect)and Ibalon in
Bicol (a southern Luzon dialect).

POETRY IN THE SPANISH COLONIAL PERIOD 

With the arrival of the Spanish colonizers Ferdinand Magellan (1521) and Miguel
Lopezde Legazpi (1571) came priests and their tradition of European Catholicism.

Satanas (Satan) first appeared in Tagalog poetry, and the Christian themes of sin,
guilt, andretribution became central concerns of the native population. In 1610,
Tomas Pinpin, aFilipino poet working for the Dominican printing press in Bataan (a
town outside Manila),wrote a book entitled

Librong Pagaaralan nang manga Tagalog nang Uicang Castila (ABook in Which

Tagalogs May Study the Spanish Language). In this book Pinpin insertedsixauit that
had alternating Spanish and Tagalog lines. This type of bilingual poetry waswritten
by a group called the Ladino Poets.Metrical romances called awit or korido were
also popular with the literary crowds. Themost influential Tagalog romance of the
period was the politically cryptic Florante at Laura (Florante and Laura; 1838),
written by Francisco Baltazar, also known asBalagtas (1788±1862). The first book
of poetry written in Spanish by a Filipino was Sampaguitas y Poesias Varias
(Sampaguitas and Other Poems; 1880) by PedroPaterno (1858±1911), which was
printed in Spain. Paterno, Marcelo H. Del Pilar (1850±1896), Jose Rizal
(1861±1896), and Isabelo De Los Reyes (1864±1918) were literaryand political
figures called Ilustrados (enlightened ones) who were living in Madrid andworking
to attain political freedom for the natives back in the Philippines. The firstFilipino
female poet to attain outside recognition was Leona Florentino (1849±1884),
whose poems were exhibited in the Exposition Filipina in 1887 in Madrid and in
the1889 Exposition Internationale in Paris.

POETRY IN THE U.S. COLONIAL PERIOD 

In 1898, the U.S. president William McKinley (1843±1901) announced that it was
theUnited States' moral duty to take possession of the Philippine Islands because
theFilipinos had to be civilized, educated, and Christianized. After U.S. soldiers
"pacified"the native population during the Philippine-American War (1899±1902),
thousands of U.S. teachers were sent throughout the archipelago to teach the
Filipinos the Englishlanguage. In just a few years, English became the privileged
form of expression for poets, prose writers, and dramatists.The earliest Filipino
poems written in English were published in 1905 in Berkeley,California, in

The Filipino Students' Magazine, which was edited by pensionados (Philippine-

American government scholars). The first book of poetry written in
English, Azucena(1925) by Marcelo De Gracia Concepcion (1895±1954), was
published in theUnited States by G. P. Putnam's Sons. The most influential Filipino
poet, Jose GarciaVilla (1908±1997), lived most of his adult life in New York City.
His books are HaveCome, Am Here (Viking Press, 1942), Volume Two (New
Directions, 1949), and Selected Poems and New (McDowell, Obolensky, 1958).
Another early immigrantFilipino poet was Carlos Bulosan (1911±1956), who
published political poems in American magazines like The New Yorker,
Poetry (edited by Harriet Monroe) and Saturday Evening Post.

In Manila in 1940, the Commonwealth Literary Prize in Englishpoetry was given to

Rafael Zulueta Da Costa (1915±1990) for Like the Molave and Other Poems. Native
themes were well represented by such local poets as FernandoMa Guerrero
(1873±1929), Lope K. Santos (1879±1965), Jose Corazon De Jesus(1896±1932),
Amado V. Hernandez (1903±1970), Alejandro G. Abadilla (1904±1969), Angela
Manalang Gloria (1907±1999), and Trinidad Tarrosa Subido (1912±1993).

CONTEMPORARY POETRY 

The declaration of formal independence from the United States on 4 July 1946
broughta sense of a new beginning to the people and poets of the Philippines. A
generation of poets who studied at the famed Iowa Writer's Workshop at the
University of Iowa in the1950s²Bienvenido N. Santos (1911±1996), Ricaredo
Demetillo (1920±1998),Dominador I. Ilio (b. 1913), and Edith Tiempo (b.
1919)²came back to the Philippineswith the literary ideals of the American New
Criticism. The 1970s and 1980s proved tobe a politically aware era for Filipino
poets, who were writing under the censorship of the dictatorial regime of Ferdinand
Marcos (1965±1986). As a reaction to the 1983assassination of Benigno Aquino,
Jr., a leading anti-Marcos politician, several poetsformed a literary organization
called PLAC (Philippine Literary Arts Council) to protestthe abuses of the
government. One of its leading founders was Alfred A. Yuson (b.1945), whose
neorealist books of poems are Dream of Knives (1986) and Trading inMermaids
(1993). Current trends in Filipino poetry are best exemplified by thepyrotechnic
imagination of Eileen R. Tabios (b. 1960), whose book of poetry Beyond Life
Sentences (1998) won the National Book Award given by the Manila Book
CriticsCircle. Her poems incorporate the American precision of Marianne Moore,
theexperimental joie de vivre of Paul Valery, and the imagistic intensity of Pablo
Neruda.