Lesson 4: STUDY AND APPRECIATION OF
LITERARY TEXTS FROM THE DIFFERENT
REGIONS WRITTEN IN DIFFERENT GENRES
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 poetries sprouted, and nowadays,
writers are more adventurous in their craft. Here are
some elements of poetry that local writers used in their
poems.
1. Senses and images 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/her senses. The kinds of sense impressions
in poetry are categorized in mainly the following:
visual imagery (what the writer wants you to see);
olfactory imagery (what the writer wants you to smell);
gustatory imagery (what the writer wants you to taste);
tactile imagery (what the writer wants you to feel);
auditory imagery (what the writer wants you to hear).
2. Diction is another important element in
Filipino poetry. In fact, Filipino writers are very careful
of the way they write and the words they use to form
their poems. Diction is the denotative and connotative
meaning of the words in a sentence, phrase, paragraph,
or poem.
3. Rhyme scheme is the way the author
arranges words, lines, and stanzas to create a coherent
sound when the poem is read out loud. It may be
formal or informal, depending on the way the poem
was written by the poet.
Senses, imagery, diction, and rhyme scheme are
emphasized in this canonical poem, “Gabu”, one of the
most widely read local poems in English by Carlos
Angeles.
Figure 1.1 Carlos Angeles
Source:https://www.google.com/search?hl=en-
PH&gbv=2&biw=963&bih=592&tbm=isch&oq=&aqs=&q=carlos+angeles
Carlos Angeles was born on 25 May 1921 in
Tacloban, Leyte. He finished his undergraduate degree
from the University of the Philippines. His work has
been included in poetry anthologies in the United
States. His poetry collection, Stun of Jewels, won the
Republic Cultural Heritage Award in Literature back in
1964; he also won the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial
Awards in Poetry in the same year. He is an active
member of many Filipino-American press clubs in the
US, where he has lived most of his life when he was
alive. His poem “Gabu” is said to be one of the most
widely read and well-loved Filipino poems written in
English.
Another element of poetry used frequently is
the idea of the speaker. The speaker in the poem is the
voice that talks to the reader. Sometimes, it refers to
itself as “I” or “me” or, sometimes, in the third person
(she, he, his, her). You should also note that the
speaker is not necessarily the poet. The poet may have
a different persona in mind while writing the poem and
may have not taken the situations in the poem from
his/her life experiences.
 Structure of the poem is the
arrangement of words and lines, either
together or apart. It also refers to the
way the interdependent parts of it are
organized to form a whole poem.
 Word order is either the natural or
unnatural arrangement of words in a
poem. A poet may use a word
grammatically or not – often called as
poetic license – and may invent words
too. Sometimes, as is common in
Filipino writers who write in English,
Filipino poets used local words to add
more locality to a given poem. If the
Filipino word also does not have a direct
English translation, then the poet may
use the Filipino word and italicize it for
emphasis.
A figure of speech is a word or phrase that
possesses a separate meaning from its literal definition.
It can be a metaphor or simile, designed to make a
comparison. It can be the repetition of alliteration or
the exaggeration of hyperbole to provide a dramatic
effect.
TYPES OF FIGURES OF SPEECH
The term figure of speech covers a wide range
of literary devices, techniques, and other forms of
figurative language. Writers also use figures of speech
in their work as a means of description or developing
meaning. Here are some common examples of figures
of speech used in writing:
1. Simile is a figure of speech in which two dissimilar
things are compared to each other using the terms
“like” or “as.”
 She’s as pretty as a picture.
 I’m pleased as punch.
2. Metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two
different things without the use of the terms “like” or
“as.”
 He is a fish out of water.
 She is a star in the sky.
3. Personification is a figure of speech that attributes
human characteristics to something that is not human.
 I heard the wind whistling.
 The water danced across my window.
4. Hyperbole is a figure of speech that utilizes extreme
exaggeration to emphasize a certain quality or feature.
 I have a million things to do.
 This suitcase weighs a ton.
5. Understatement is a figure of speech that invokes
less emotion than would be expected in reaction to
something. This downplaying of reaction is a surprise
for the reader and generally has the effect of showing
irony.
 I heard she has cancer, but it’s not a big deal.
 Joe got his dream job, so that’s not too bad.
6. Paradox is a figure of speech that appears to be self-
contradictory but actually reveals something truthful.
 You have to spend money to save it.
 What I’ve learned is that I know nothing.
7. Pun is a figure of speech that contains a “play” on
words, such as using words that mean one thing to
mean something else or words that sound alike in as a
means of changing meaning.
 A sleeping bull is called a bull-dozer.
 Baseball players eat on home plates.
8. Oxymoron is a figure of speech that connects two
opposing ideas, usually in two-word phrases, to create
a contradictory effect.
 His new girlfriend really is pretty ugly.
 They couldn’t wait to get out alone together.
9. Metonymy is the use of a linked termed to stand in
for an object or concept.
 The pen is mightier than the sword.
 My grandmother offered me a cup.
 He was sent to the big house as he committed a
murder.
10. Onomatopoeia is a figure of speech that sounds
like the noise it describes. The spelling and
pronunciation of the word is directly influenced by the
sounds it defines in real life. All onomatopoeia words
describe specific sounds.
 Plink plink plink “the water dripped into the
bucket
 He slammed the door so hard, the bang echoed
through the building.
11. Alliteration is a figure of speech that reflects
repetition in two or more nearby words of initial
consonant sounds.
 Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
 Shut the shutters before the shouting makes you
shudder.
12. Assonance is a figure of speech in which the
repetition of similar vowels sounds takes place in two
or more words in proximity to each other within a line
of poetry or prose.
 The light of the fire is a sight.
 Go slow over the road.
13. Consonance is a figure of speech that refers to the
repetition of the same consonant sounds in a line of
text. The focus, in the use of consonance, is on the
sound made by consonants and not necessarily the
letters themselves.
 Mike likes his new bikes.
 I will crawl away with the ball.
 It will creep and beep while you sleep.
14. Litotes is a figure of speech featuring a phrase that
utilizes negative wording or term to express a positive
assertion or statement. It is commonly used in speech,
rhetoric, and nonfiction.
 He is not the sharpest tools in the shed.
 That store is not in the most convenient
location.
15. Synecdoche is a figure of speech in which a part of
something is used to signify the whole or vice versa. It
is derived from the Greek word synekdoche:
simultaneous meaning.
 The captain commands one hundred sails.
 Give us this day our daily bread.