Before Reading 2
Share What You Know
Who is Jose Rizal? What literary works
of Jose Rizal have you read?
Find Meaning in Context
hapless, hopeless life
fighting with delirium
to perish that you may live
Set a Reading Focus
What does the speaker in the poem
think about his approaching death?
About the Author
Jose Rizal wrote his best poetry
when he was a political prisoner.
His "Mi Ultimo Adios" ("My Last
Farewell") was written on the eve of
his execution. It is widely believed
that Rizal hid the poem from his jail
guards by stuffing the manuscript
into an alcohol lamp. He gave this
alcohol lamp to his sisters who came
to see him just before he was led out
of prison for his execution.
Rizal wrote many other poemns
and stories but his "Mi Ultimo Adios,"
together with his novels Noli Me
Tangere (The Social Cancer) and El
Filibusterismo (The Reign of Greed)
shows that he was a literary giant.
Many people believe that no man of
letters in our country has lived more
beautifully, thought more nobly, and
suffered more deeply than Jose Rizal.
During Reading 2
My Last Farewell
Excerpt by Jose Rizal
sun loves!
Land that I love-farewell! O Land the
to your brood!
Pearl in the sea of the Orient: Eden lost
Gaily go I to present you this hapless, hopeless life;
were it more brilliant, had it more freshness, more
bloom:
still for you would I give it-would give it for your good.
On the field of battle, fighting with delirium,
others give you their lives without doubts,
without
gloom.
The site matters not: cypress, laurel or lily;
combat cruel martyrdom,
gibbet or open field; or
are equal if demanded by country and home.
I am to die when I see the heavens go vivid,
announcing the day at last behind the dead night.
If you need color-color to stain the dawn with,
let spill my blood: scatter it in good hour,
and drench it in its gold one-the beam of the newborn
light.
My dreams when a lad, when scarcely adolescent:
my dreams when a young man,
now with vigor inflamed;
were to behold you one day-Jewel of eastern waters!
griefless the dusky eyes: lofty the upright brow:
undouded, unfurrowed, unblemished, and unashamed!
Enchantment of my life, my ardent avid obsession:
To your health! cries the soul, so soon to take the last
leap;
To your health! O lovely: how lovely:
to fall that you may rise! to perish that you may live!
to die beneath your skies! and upon your enchanted
ground the eternities to sleep!
Lesson 6: Imbibing the Nationalistic Spirit 167
After Reading 1

Remembering
impression
about th
What is your
1. Which lines
writer of
this poem?
impression?
this
give you the
does
2. What expressions
in the poem
use to nam
speaker
his country?
for his
What w e r e
his dreams
3.
think these
country? Do you
been
dreams have already
answer.
achieved? Support your
the
How does the speaker in
4 describe his life? What
poem
make
events in Philippine history
him describe his life this way?

5. How does the speaker in the

poem feel about his approaching
death? Read the lines that give
this feeling8

Understanding
6. According to the decalogue, why
shouldwe...
a. love God and our honor above
all things
b. worship the way our
conscience tells us to do

Analyzing
7. Do the expressions Pearl of the
Orient Seas and Eden lost to your
brood describe the
Philippines
well? Why?

Evaluating
8. How can you help achieve these
dreams for the
country?