My Fathers’ House

Dr. Cirilo F. Bautista

Objective
• Apply the different concepts previously learned in
analyzing and interpreting selected poems.
• Present a detailed analysis on the assigned text.
• Write a critique on selected texts.
• Appreciate the values presented (implied or direct)
from the discussed text.
Author’s Background
Cirilo F. Bautista
• He is a canonical writer
• Born on July 9, 1941 at Manila
• And died on May 6, 2018
• He was a Filipino poet, critic and
writer of non friction.
• He was awarded as the National
Artist of the Philippines last 2014
Cirilo F. Bautista
• He studied at
• UST, with a degree of Bachelor of Arts in
Literature (AB Literature)
• University of Saint Louis, Master of Arts in
Literature (Magna Cum laude)
• De La Salle University, Doctorate of Arts in
Language and Literature
Cirilo F. Bautista
• His works are considered to be valuable to
Philippine society
• Some of his works are
• Sunlight on broken Stones; The last in the Trilogy
of Saint Lazarus
• Words and Battlefield: A theoria on the Poem
• The House of True Desire
 MY FATHER’S HOUSE
by Cirilo Bautista
• Whence comes the purpose for my fight
• In word or deed contending?
• What virtue makes my battle right?
• Whose home am I defending?
• They say my duty is to vote –
• To “get out,” “rock,” or so they wrote.
• “It doesn’t matter,” they proclaim,
• “Whom you will choose. Just play the game,
• Your greatest right commending.”
 • But all this does is obfuscate
• The goal of my election
• To meet my foes beside the gate
• And urge my home’s protection.
• My father’s house is my concern.
• His virtue is for which I yearn.
• It is the ground of liberty
• To learn from mom and dad for free,
• Receiving wise correction.
 • Now, this estate will I contend
• Is part of God’s creation.
• Thus it is good that we defend
• From wicked deviation
• By those who’d make our culture bare
• Of father’s rule and mother’s care.
• Though most will not our God embrace
• We seek good order for our race,
• Each in his noble station.
 • My voice is granted not by him
• They call my father’s brother,
• Who at this godless culture’s whim
• Would draft my wife or mother.
• No, Sam’s authority derives
• From God whose power always strives
• To keep His order good and true
• Despite what nagging women do.
• He gets it from none other.
 • ‘Twas first to parents God so true
• Gave earthly pow’r, commanding,
• “Be fruitful; have dominion too.”
• Thus nature’s still demanding
• This crucial structure of the home
• Lest sons and daughters wayward roam.
• ‘Tis not the state’s authority
• To undermine what makes us free,
• A father’s rule disbanding.
 • My voice is found not in the waves
• Of popping-culture’s teaching,
• Which sophomoric thinking raves
• Will free us from the preaching
• Of those who guide us how to think
• And keep our wits lest we too sink
• Into the empty plots of men.
• These waves recede so yet again
• Their voice is empty screeching.
 • Nor is my voice found in a vote
• Among a mob endorsing
• A culture void of dads, which smote
• Their infants while enforcing
• Polluted wombs within their wives,
• Planned barrenness throughout their lives.
• My voice is found when dads assert
• What loving mothers won’t desert –
• The truth they’re reinforcing.
 • A son learns tact; a daughter grows
• To emulate her mother
• Who guards her younglings, for she knows
• Her husband will defend her.
• For such a voice speaks louder still
• Than all the mob’s fanatic will.
• The father does not speak alone,
• But takes the cause of all his own.
• Their wants become his bother.
 • But what of those who never wed?
• Should they be void of pleasure
• To have their voices heard and fed
• True freedom in full measure?
• Yet even single gals and lads,
• When they avoid the passing fads,
• Promoting what their fathers taught
• And keeping what their mothers wrought,
• Sustain their culture’s treasure
 • The truest voices of the free
• Are stronger than the voting
• Of crowds who in their misery
• Elect the one promoting
• Their own destructive policies,
• Which undermine their liberties.
• For though they win today’s campaign
• And pour their festival’s Champaign,
• They’ll perish in their gloating
• So take good courage, you who mourn
• Your culture’s dying ember.
• Your freedom’s virtue ne’er is torn
• From those who ne’er surrender
• The wisdom taught by father’s will,
• Which mother did in us instill.
• But still, be warned, lest you in vain
• Pursue what’s good without the gain
• Of God’s own mercy tender
 • Man’s freedom dimly imitates
• With sin-stained imperfection
• What every Christian celebrates
• In Jesus’ resurrection.
• While sin corrupts a father’s home,
• His rule reflects what God has shown.
• True liberty our Father gives
• When e’er His children He forgives
• And chastens with instruction.
 • A father who is good and right
• In outward word and action
• Gains nothing if he spurns the Light
• Who made full satisfaction
• For all his sins, which bring to naught
• The morals he his kids has taught.
• But nonetheless the structure’s good,
• That fathers govern, as they should,
• Their homes in each ones faction.
 • So as we fight for liberty
• Amidst a dying nation
• May we not lose what makes us free
• In God’s own Incarnation.
• For even if the we win the day
• Our works are vain and soon decay
• If we don’t fear and trust the Lord
• Who died to save us from the sword
• Of righteous condemnation.
 • But say we lose the culture war,
• And witness homes forsaken
• To please the scoffer and the whore;
• Our hearts will not be shaken!
• For still we know that God is true.
• He will our aching hearts subdue.
• For hidden under all deceit
• The wicked foes will all retreat
• From Christ. We’re not forsaken.
Question
• What qualities of the persona were exemplified
in the poem? How did he react to his father’s
presence as a child, as a young man, as a father
himself?
• Based on the speaker’s recollection, what daily
rituals bound the father and the son in the
poem?
• How was the father portrayed by the speaker?
Why was the poem titled “My Father’s House”?
Element of Poetry
• Speaker
• Audience
• Content
• Theme
• Mood or Tone
• Imagery
• Form and Shape
Form and Shape
• Structure
• The poem does follow rhyme scheme.
• Stanza
• 8 and 7 syllable and 15 stanza with 9 lines
Figure of Speech
• Metaphor:
• Champaign
• Celebration
TYPES OF SOUND DEVICES
• Assonance
• I and O
TYPES OF SOUND DEVICES
• Consonance: 
• R and T
TYPES OF SOUND DEVICES
• Rhythm
• A father who is good and right
• In outward word and action
• Gains nothing if he spurns the Light
• Who made full satisfaction
• For all his sins, which bring to naught
• The morals he his kids has taught.
• But nonetheless the structure’s good,
• That fathers govern, as they should,
• Their homes in each ones faction