POETRY

“Moonlight On Manila Bay”

By: Fernando M. Maramag

ROAN I. VILLALOBOS MS. RECHELLE MARGALLO

BSIT/CEIT-07-701E PROFESSOR
ENGLISH 5
I. Tittle : Moonlight On Manila Bay

II. Author: Fernando M. Maramag

He was born on January 21, 1893 in Ilagan, Isabela, to wealthy parents and landowners
Rafael Maramag and Victoria Mamuri, a Spanish mestiza. At age 7 he enrolled in a public
school in his hometown. He finished his high school in 1908. He was 15 when he entered the
Philippine Normal School; however, at the insistence of his father, he transferred to the
University of the Philippines.

III. Type of Poetry: Sonnet

IV. Form of Poetry: Expresses a feeling of great gratitude about the heritage.

V. Element of poetry

a. Rhythm / Rhyme

This poem, I believe is a sonnet, with 14 lines and having the last two lines as
the couplet. As to what I had understood (and I hope I did it right), the first 5-6 lines of the
poem describes the peace, randomness, or the great and calm things happening in the place.
Since, the title of the poem was Moonlight on Manila Bay, let me assume that the poem took
place in the Philippines, particularly Manila [Bay]. According to what I understood in the
poem, Manila Bay then was a serene place. The first line says “A light serene, ethereal glory
rests…”. It means the ambiance of the bay was so tranquil that on the 3rd line, one could see
the reflection of the moonlight on the water. The water was unruffled; the place was
unharmed; the people were undisturbed. They were living a peaceful life then.

b. Imagery

But on the 9th line until the 10th, it suggested changes in the said place. “Not
always such the scene: the din of fight has swelled the murmur of the peaceful air.” I could
say that there was a gust of bad air that blew on the place. There was someone [or something]
that broke the peacefulness and the calmness Manila once possessed. There was war of
different race as the 11th line suggests. “Here East and West have oft displayed their might;”
I think that the

In the 12th line it conveys the dark side or the dark things that took place
during the war – the war that stained the once oh so peaceful Manila. But, as the first line in
the couplet says, there came a historic night when victory was already in the hands of the
Filipinos. That same night predicted the freedom the Filipinos were wishing for.
 c. Symbol

East and West here signify the Philippines and the Westerners particularly
America. The war being mentioned here could be the struggle of the Filipino people for
freedom against the American colonizers. Theirs was a once peaceful nation, right after the
1898 freedom against Spaniards, but the Americans came bringing forth end to the happiness
the Filipinos were experiencing towards their freedom.

d. Figure of Speech

-Metaphors

e. Meter

-Pentameter

VI. Moral

Fernando Maramag's Moonlight on Manila Bay describes the Philippines ('the scene so
fair') as a picturesque country before the intrusion of America. Whatever we encounter a
problem against foreign colonizer we are one who fight for our country.