GRACE MISSION COLLEGE

Catiningan, Socorro, Oriental Mindoro

e-Mail: grace.missioncollege@yahoo.com

MODULE 2

C. Literary Forms Based on Philippine Historical Period

At the end of this Module, you should be able to:

1. Identify historical events of

Philippine Literature in English
2. Create understanding about the
Literary works of Philippine
Literature in English
3. Appreciate the value of Philippine
Literature in English
1. Recall the background of the literary forms in the Philippines.
2. Appreciate the rich literary tradition of our country.

I. ANCIENT LITERATURE/FOLK LITERATURE

1. Myth - a traditional story in prose concerning details of gods and demigods and the creation of the world and
its inhabitants.
Examples: 1. Visayan Creation Myth
2. Bagobo Creation Story
3. Tungkung Langit and Alunsina

2. Heroic Narratives or Epics Folk - epics which narrate the adventures of tribal heroes which embody in
themselves the ideals and values of the group.
Examples: Lam-Ang Ulalim Ibalon Indarapatra at Sulayman

3. Ethnological Legends - Legends which explain how things came to be,

why things are as they are. 1. Legend of the Mayon Volcano
2. Legend of the Tagalogs
3. Gaddang

4. Folk Tales Prose narrative regarded as:

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a. Animal Tale- a folktale using animals as characters - Monkey and the Turtle - The Cow and the
Carabao
b. Folk Speech simplest form of oral literature
1. Riddles description of object in terms intended and suggest something entirelydifferent.
Example: Tumakbo si Juan, nahati ang daan. (zipper)
2. Proverbs short popular sayings that expresses effectively some common place truth or useful
thought.Example:Ang hindi lumingon sa pinanggalingan, hindi nakararating sa paroroonan.
3. Folk Songs- verse set into music by the members of the community.Example:Manang Biday
Dandansoy

POETRY - refers to those expressions in verse, with measure and rhyme, line and stanza, and has a
more melodious tone. Poems are forms of literature usually written in lines or verses that makes up a stanza.
Poems are designed to be read aloud. The recitation of the poem reveals its rhythm, and thought units that
help out the meaning it wishes to convey.
Elements of Poetry
1. Sense - it is revealed through the words, images, and symbols.
a. diction- the denotative and connotative meanings of the words.
b. Images and sense impressions- the words used that appeal to the sense ofsight,
smell, hearing, taste and touch.
c. Figures of speech- the creative use of words or expressions that poet uses to
enhance the sense impression.

2. Sound - This is the result of the creative combination of words. The poet may resort to the
use of anaphora, alliteration, assonance, rhyme, and repetition.
a. Rhythm- the ordered alternation of strong and weak elements in the flow of sound and
silence.
b. Meter- the duration, stress number and syllables per line.
c. Rhyme Scheme- the formal arrangement of rhymes in a stanza or in the whole poem.

3. Structure- This refers to the arrangement of words and lines to fit together and the
organization of the parts to form the whole.
a. Word order- the natural or unnatural arrangement of words.
b. Ellipsis- omitting some words for economy or effect.
c. Punctuation- abundance or lack of punctuation.
d. Shape- contextual or visual design, omission of spaces, use of capitalization or lower
case.

TYPES OF POETRY : NARRATIVE POETRY LYRIC POETRY DRAMATIC POETRY

a. NARRATIVE POETRY - This form describes the important events in life either real or imaginary.
There are different varieties:
1. Epic This is an extended narrative about heroic exploits often under supernatural control. It
may deal with heroes and gods.
2. Metrical tale- This is a narrative which is written and told in verse.
EXAMPLE: BAYANI NG BUKID
Al Perez
Akoy magsasakang bayani ng bukid
Sandatay araro matapang sa init
Hindi natatakot kahit na sa lamig
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Catiningan, Socorro, Oriental Mindoro
e-Mail: grace.missioncollege@yahoo.com

Sa buong maghapon gumagawa ng pilit.

Ang kaibigan ko ay si Kalakian

Laging nakahanda maging araw-araw
Sa pag-aararo at sa paglilinang
Upang maihanda ang lupang mayaman.

Ang haring araw di dapat sumisikat

Akoy pupunta na sa napakalawak
Na aking bukiring laging nasa hagap
At tanging pag-asa ng taong masipag.

Sa aking lupain doon nagmumula

Lahat ng pagkain nitong ating bansa
Ang lahat ng tao, mayaman o dukha
Silay umaasa sa pawis kot gawa.

Sa aking paggawa ang tangi kong hangad

Ang aniy dumami na para sa lahat
Kapag ang balanay may pagkaing tiyak
Umaasa akong pusoy nagagalak.
3. Ballads- of the narrative poems, this isconsidered the shortest and the simplest. It has a
simple structure and narrate a single incident.
b. LYRIC POETRY - Originally, this refers to the kind of 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. It expresses the authors mood, emotion, and reflection in
musical language. It derives its name from the lyre, and was primarily intended to be sung. Not all lyrics are
sing able, but they are melodious.
1. Folksongs (Awiting Bayan) - These are short poems, intended to be sung. The common theme is
love, despair, grief, doubt, joy, hope, and sorrow.
CHIT-CHIRIT-CHIT
Chitchiritchit alibangbang Salaginto salagubang
Ang babae sa lansangan
Kung gumiriy parang tandang
Santo Nino sa Pandacan Puto seko sa tindahan
Kung ayaw kang magpautangUubusin ka ng langgam.

Mama, mama, namamangka

Pasakayin yaring bataPagdating sa Maynila
Ipagpalit ng manika.
Ale, ale, namamayong
Pasukubin yaring sanggol
Pagdating sa MalabonIpagpalit ng Bagoong.

CHIT-CHIRIT-CHIT (English)
Chit-Chirit-Chit, Alibangbang Gold bug and the beetle
The street woman
Struts like a rooster.
Child saint of Pandacan Puto seco in the store
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If you dont want to lendYoull be devoured by ants.

Sir, sir, paddling the canoe

Give this child a ride
When you reach Manila Swap it with a doll.
Lady, lady, with the umbrella
Shade this infant
When you reach Malabon Swap it with Bagoong.
2. Sonnets - This is a lyric poem of 14 lines dealing with an emotion, feeling, or an idea. There are two
types of sonnet: Shakespearean and Petrarchan (Italian).
EXAMPLE: SANTANG BUDS
by Alfonso P. Santos

Let me see in dreams the santang buds

That in my absence blossom still beside
My window, Crimson buds, like crimson pearls
Ever faithfulness they bloom, unchanged,
Unfailing like the memories of home,
Now is the time, the season of their blooming,
An hour less, an hour more, yet stays
Their crimson evermore unchanged, untouched
Let me but see in dreams the santang buds
That in my absence blooms, in faith for one
Heart lost in foreign lands, fated to share
No love, no fortune from the world but born
To suffer want and misery, decreed
To live unknown, in penitence and need.
3. ELEGY - This is a lyric poem which expresses the feelings and griefs and melancholy, and whose theme is
death. It may voiced the authors personal grief for a loved one, or a loss affecting the public as a whole, or it
may be just a meditation about death in general.
THE LOVERS DEATH
Ricardo Demetillo

He who had lived the earth with a firm love

Is now, being infirm, laid in the earth
That covers him with green grass quietly,
Once when he walked the fields, he suddenly knelt
And with an avid gesture clasped the earth.
His sun-lit fingers sift the dust. 29.
Lovers would write their incoherent view,
On passionate pages, but he, on the pads of meadow,
Wrote with his plow a tongue-tied love.
Field understood, for when the harvest ripened,
Fruits lay like a brown breast for his hands to pluck,
And he with the lightness, touch each pregnant stalk
His house was quiet, like the man who closed
The gate-behind him when the lamplight glowed
He knew no woman’s touch except the earths
We thought it fitting that the sun should touch
 GRACE MISSION COLLEGE
Catiningan, Socorro, Oriental Mindoro
e-Mail: grace.missioncollege@yahoo.com

With quite fingers the rice-fronds in the field

When he, after a fever, gave himself to dusk.
We could not salvage breath, but we could swathe
His body and lay it in the earth he loved
He may return and beckon from a sheaf.

4. ODE - This is a poem of a noble feeling, expressedwith dignity, with no definite number ofsyllables or
definite number of lines. It is the most majestic type of lyric poem. Itexpresses enthusiasm, lofty praise of
someperson, thing, a deep reflection, or arestrained feeling. The author is in an exalted mood.

5. PSALMS (DALIT) - This is a song praising God or the VirginMary and containing philosophy of life.
EXAMPLE:
O Mariang sakdal dilag
Dalagang lubhang mapalad
Tanging pinili sa lahat
Ng Diyos Haring Mataas

Itong bulaklak na alay

Aming pagsintang tunay
Palitan mo Birheng Mahal
Ng Tuwa sa kalangitan.

Halinat tayo ay mag-alay

Ng bulaklak kay Maria
Halinat magsilapit
Dine sa birheng marikit
Ng Inang kaibig-ibig
Dakilang Reyna sa langit
Ng ampunit saklolohan
Tayong mga anak niya.

6. AWIT - These have measures of twelve syllables(dodecasyllabic) and slowly sung to the accompaniment of
a guitar or banduria. An example of awit is FLORANTE ATLAURA by Francisco Balagtas.
It is a fabrication of the writers imaginationalthough the characters and setting may be European. EXAMPLE IN
FRANCISCO BALTAZARS FLORANTE AT LAURA: Ang taong magawi sa ligayat aliw,Mahina ang puso,
lubhang maramdamin,Inaakala pa lamang ang hilahilNa daratnay di na matutuhang bathin

7. CORRIDO (KURIDOS) - These have measures of eight syllables(octosyllabic) and recited to a martial beat.
They were widely read during the Spanish period that field the populaces need for entertainment as well as
edifying reading matter in their leisure moment. Deal mostly with courtly love and the chivalric adventures of
such heroes as Charlemagne and his peers and El Cid.
Example from Ibong Adarna
O birheng kaibig-ibig
Di-umanoy si Don JuanIna naming nasa langit,
Bunso niyang minamahalLiwanagin yaring isip
Ay nililo at pinatayNang sa layoy di malihis.
Ng dalawang tampalasanGanito ang napagsapit
May isang ibong maganda
Ng haring kaibig-ibigAng pangalan ay Adarna,
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Catiningan, Socorro, Oriental Mindoro
e-Mail: grace.missioncollege@yahoo.com

Nang siyay managinip

Pag naririnig mong kumantaIsang gabing naiidlip
Sa sakit ay giginhawa.

c. DRAMATIC POETRY
Included in this form are: Comedy, Melodrama, Tragedy, Farce, and Social Poems.
1. Comedy - The word comedy comes from the Greek word Komos meaning festivity or revelry. This form is
usually light and written with the purpose of amusing, and usually has a happy ending.

2. Melodrama- This is usually used in a 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 ahappy
ending for the principal character.

3. 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.

4. Farce- This is an exaggerated comedy. It seeks to arouse mirth by laughable lines, situation are too
ridiculous to be true; the characters seem to be caricatures and the motives undignified and absurd.

5. Social poems- this form is either purely comic or tragic as it pictures the life of today. It may aim to bring
about changes in the social conditions.
REVOLT FROM HYMEN
Angela Manalang Gloria (1940)

O to be free at last, to sleep at last

As infants sleep within the womb of rest!
To stir and stirring find no blackness vast
With passion weighted down upon the breast,
To turn the face this way and that and feel
No kisses festering on it like sores,
To be alone at last, broken the seal
That marks the flesh no better than a whore’s.

RELIGIOUS DRAMAS
a. PANUNULUYAN- Literally, seeking entrance, the Tagalog version of the Mexican Posadas. Held on the eve
of Christmas, it dramatizes Josephs and Mary’s search for lodging in Bethlehem.- Is also called Pananapatan
or Panawagan. Gagharong or Paharongharong in Bicol.

b. CENACULO - Was originally just the dramatization of the passion and death of Jesus Christ presented
during Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. The players either speak their lines in a slow and deliberate way,
(hablada); orchant their lines in the manner of pasyonsinging (cantada).

c. SALUBONG - An Easter play that dramatizes the meeting of the risen Christ and his mother.
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Catiningan, Socorro, Oriental Mindoro
e-Mail: grace.missioncollege@yahoo.com

d. THE MORIONES - Refers to the participants dressed as Roman soldiers, their identities hidden behind the
colorful, sometimes grotesque, wooden mask. The Pugutan or beheading climaxes the Moriones festival. The
headless body is then taken in procession around the town byhis fellow soldier and then buried.

e. THE TIBAG - Also known as Santacruzan. It is performed during the month of May which have a devotion to
the Holy Cross. It depicts St. Elena’s search for the cross on which Christ died. The Tagalog name TIBAG
comes from theact of excavating or leveling the mounds.

f. THE PANGANGALUWA - An interesting socio-religious practice on All Saints Day which literally means for
the Soul The practice is based on the old belief that the souls in the purgatory are released on the night of All
Saints Day to go begging alms on earth. These were generally held during the nine nights of vigil and prayers
after someone’s death, or the first death anniversary when the family members put away their mourning
clothes.

g. THE KARAGATAN - Open Sea, comes from the legendary practice of testing the mettle of young men
vying for a maiden’s hand. The maiden’s ring would be dropped into the sea and whoever retrieves it would
have the girl’s hand in marriage.

h. THE DUPLO - A forerunner of the balagtasan. The performers consist of two teams: one composed of
young women called Dupleras or Belyakas; and the other, of young men called Dupleros or Belyakos. An
elderly man- the Hari or Punong Halaman- presides over the proceedings.

i. THE COMEDIA - One of the earliest forms of stage drama which took on a particular aspect; that of a
particular play which had for its main theme courtly love, usually between a prince and a princess of different
religions one a Christian, the other a Muslim. These conflicts were resolved in the end, with the victory of the
Christians, a propaganda tool which was endorsed by the friars.
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TASK 1
a. Try to search for another examples!
(Ancient Literature/ Folk Literature)
- 3 examples of Myth
- 3 examples of Heroic Narratives or Epics Folk
- 3 examples of Ethnological Legends
Folk Tales Prose
- 3 examples of Animal Tale
Folk Speech
-3 examples of Riddles
-3 examples of Proverbs
-3 examples of Folk Songs

b. Try to search one for every type of poetry (Identify what particular type of poetry)

c. Among the cited Religious Dramas, which one is very familiar to you?
Share your experiences regarding your chosen one.
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Catiningan, Socorro, Oriental Mindoro
e-Mail: grace.missioncollege@yahoo.com

(Get ready for the Quiz)

Prepared by:

ROSWELL O. TOLENTINO, EdD

I always Can!