LESSON 4: POETRY IN ARCHIPELAGO

Poetry in the Philippines is not different from its other counterparts around the world.
In the early 1900s, 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.

What is Poetry?

Poetry is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of
language—such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre—to evoke meanings in
addition to, or in place of, the prosaic ostensible meaning.

Some Elements of Poetry that local writers use in their poems

1. Senses and Images – These 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.

a. Visual imagery – what the writer wants you to see

Example Sentences
1. The sunset was the most gorgeous they’d ever seen; the clouds were edged
with pink and gold.
2. It was dark and dim in the forest.
Example in Literature
*1984 by George Orwell
Outside, even through the shut window-pane, the world looked cold. Down in the
street little eddies of wind were whirling dust and torn paper into spirals, and though
the sun was shining and the sky a harsh blue, there seemed to be no colour in
anything, except the posters that were plastered everywhere. The black mustachioed
face gazed down from every commanding corner. There was one on the house-front
immediately opposite. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption said, while
the dark eyes looked deep into Winston’s own. Down at street level another poster,
torn at one corner, flapped fitfully in the wind, alternately covering and uncovering the
single word INGSOC. In the far distance a helicopter skimmed down between the
roofs, hovered for an instant like a bluebottle, and darted away again with a curving
flight.

b. Olfactory imagery – what the writer wants you to smell

Example Sentences
1. After eating the curry, his breath reeked of garlic.
2. He whiffed the aroma of brewed coffee.
Example in Literature
*Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind
In the period of which we speak, there reigned in the cities a stench barely
conceivable to us modern men and women. The streets stank of manure, the
courtyards of urine, the stairwells stank of moldering wood and rat droppings, the
kitchens of spoiled cabbage and mutton fat; the unaired parlors stank of stale dust,
the bedrooms of greasy sheets, damp featherbeds, and the pungently sweet aroma of
chamber pots. The stench of sulfur rose from the chimneys, the stench of caustic lyes
from the tanneries, and from the slaughterhouses came the stench of congealed

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blood. People stank of sweat and unwashed clothes; from their mouths came the
stench of rotting teeth, from their bellies that of onions, and from their bodies, if they
were no longer very young, came the stench of rancid cheese and sour milk and
tumorous disease.

c. Gustatory imagery – what the writer wants you to taste

Example Sentences
1. The familiar tang of his grandmother’s cranberry sauce reminded him of his youth.
2. The fresh and juicy orange is very cold and sweet.
Example in Literature
*Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude
On rainy afternoons, embroidering with a group of friends on the begonia porch, she
would lose the thread of the conversation and a tear of nostalgia would salt her palate
when she saw the strips of damp earth and the piles of mud that the earthworms had
pushed up in the garden. Those secret tastes, defeated in the past by oranges and
rhubarb, broke out into an irrepressible urge when she began to weep. She went back
to eating earth. The first time she did it almost out of curiosity, sure that the bad taste
would be the best cure for the temptation. And, in fact, she could not bear the earth in
her mouth. But she persevered, overcome by the growing anxiety, and little by little
she was getting back her ancestral appetite, the taste of primary minerals, the
unbridled satisfaction of what was the original food.

d. Tactile imagery – what the writer wants you to feel

Example Sentences
1. The tree bark was rough against her skin.
2. The girl ran her hands on a soft satin fabric.
Example in Literature
*Robert Frost uses tactile imagery in these lines from "After Apple Picking":
My instep arch not only keeps the ache,
It keeps the pressure of a ladder-round.
I feel the ladder sway as the boughs bend.
And I keep hearing from the cellar bin
The rumbling sound
Of load on load of apples coming in.
For I have had too much
Of apple-picking: I am overtired
Of the great harvest I myself desired.
There were ten thousand fruit to touch,
Cherish in hand, lift down, and not let fall.

e. Auditory imagery – what the writer wants you to hear.

Example Sentences
1. The concert was so loud that her ears rang for days afterward.
2. The children were screaming and shouting in the fields
Example in Literature
*“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake

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The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

2.Diction – Denotative and connotative meaning of the words in sentence, phrase, paragraph,
or poem.

a. Denotative – literal definition of a word that might be found in a dictionary.

Example Denotative words

o Dog – suggests shamelessness or an ugly face.

o Dove – suggests peace or gentility.
o Home – suggests family, comfort, and security.
o Pushy – suggests someone is loud-mouthed and irritating.
o Mom and Dad – when used instead of “mother and father” suggest loving parents.
Example Denotative sentences

o She recognized the lovely aroma of her mother’s cooking. (Smell)

o Vegetables are an inexpensive (Cheap)
o I stopped for brunch at a diner situated in the bay area. (Café)

b. Connotative – refers to a meaning that is implied by a word apart from the thing
which it describes explicitly.
Example Connotative words
Positive Connotation Neutral Connotation Negative Connotation
Childlike Young Childish
Unique Different Peculiar
Vintage Old Decrepit
Innocent Adolescent Immature

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.
Nature’s Way (By Heidi Campbell)

Upon a nice mid-spring day, A

Let’s take a look at Nature’s way. A
Breathe the scent of nice fresh air, B
Feel the breeze within your hair. B
The grass will poke between your toes, C
Smell the flowers with your nose. C
Clouds form shapes within the skies, D
And light will glisten from your eyes D

Types of Poetry:
1. Narrative Poetry - This form describes important events in life either real or
imaginary.
A. Epic - This is an extended narrative about heroic exploits often under
supernatural control.

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 Example: The Hinilawod
B. Lyric Poetry - This is a narrative which is written in verse and can be
classified either as a ballad or a metrical romance.
Example: Bayani Ng Bukid by Al Perez
C. Ballad - It has a simple structure and tells of a single incident. There are also
variations of these: love ballads, war ballads, and sea ballads, humorous,
moral, and historical or mythical ballads.
Example: Bayani Ng Bukid by Al Perez

2. Lyric Poetry - Meant to be sung to the accompaniment of a lyre, but now, this
applies to any type of poetry that expresses emotions and feelings of the poet.
They are usually short, simple and easy to understand.
A. Folksongs (Awiting Bayan) - These are short poems intended to be sung.
The common theme is love, despair, grief, doubt, joy, hope and sorrow.
Example: Sitsiritsist
B. Sonnets - This is a lyric poem of 14 lines dealing with an emotion, a feeling,
or an idea.
Example: SONNET of the WILD ROSES by Michael Flores Caasi
C. Elegy - This is a lyric poem which expresses feelings of grief and melancholy,
and whose theme is death.
Example: THE LOVER’S DEATH by Ricaredo Demetillo
D. Ode - This is a poem of a noble feeling, expressed with dignity, with no
definite number of syllables or definite number of lines in a stanza.
Example: Ode to My Wife by Dr. Eusebio Koh
E. Psalms (Dalit) - This is a song praising God or the Virgin Mary and containing
a philosophy of life.
3. Dramatic Poetry
A. Comedy - The word comedy comes from the Greek term “komos” meaning
festivity or revelry. This form usually is light and written with the purpose of
amusing, and usually has a happy ending.
B. Melodrama - This is usually used in musical plays with the opera. Today, this
is related to tragedy just as the farce is to comedy. It arouses immediate and
intense emotion and is usually sad but there is a happy ending for the
principal character.
C. Tragedy - This involves the hero struggling mightily against dynamic forces;
he meets death or ruin without success and satisfaction obtained by the
protagonist in a comedy.
D. Farce - This is an exaggerated comedy. It seeks to arouse mirth by laughable
lines; situations are too ridiculous to be true; the characters seem to be
caricatures and the motives undignified and absurd.
E. Social Poems - This form is either purely comic or tragic and it pictures the
life of today. It may aim to bring about changes in the social conditions.

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