21 st Century Literature

from the Philippines and the

World
Many people are intimidated by the mention of the word “poetry.” It is often
perceived as something that is hidden and beyond understanding. But there
are some pieces of information that can help us to grasp poetry whether we are
just starting to learn about analyzing it or trying to find our own poetic voice.
Poetry has often reflected the voice of the time. Meaning, subject matter
and language choices may change with whatever is considered an everyday
concern in the current society’s expectations. Not many contemporary poems
will use the same language as Shakespeare, but that does not mean that they
are any less valid and likewise, poetry that lasts through the transition of time
still resonates with the reader in some way.
At the end of the module, you should be able to:

• Knowledge: determine representative texts and authors from each

region ( e.g. engage in oral history research with focus on key
personalities from the students’ region province/town.)
• Skills: analyze a literary text through citing the elements, and
traditions;
• Attitude: appreciate the contributions of the Canonical Filipino
writers to the development of National literature.
Activity 1:
Read and analyze the given stanza and answer the questions that follow.

The Sea
By Esteria J. Macajelos
God created you vast and wide
Home of creatures that play with tide.
Blushing, sparkling, lying with pride,
Sight to hold, mysterious and might.

Sunrise colors your face a sight

Gold, yellow, and orange delight
People stare with awe and wonder
With such beauty no words compare
• What are the words that rhyme at the end of each line?
• Give at least 5 words that appeal to the senses?
• List words that have the same initial sound.
• List words which have the same middle vowel sounds
• How many syllables does each line have?
• How many lines are there in each stanza?
• ALLEGORY
- a story, poem, or picture
that can be interpreted to
reveal a hidden meaning,
typically a moral or political
one.
BONSAI
Vocabulary Check:

gaudy (adj) - extravagantly bright or showy, typically so as to

be tasteless.
- ostentatiously ornamented

shawl (n) - a square or oblong usually fabric garment or

wrapper used especially as a covering for the head or
shoulders

roto (adj) - torn, broken

•What do you value in
life?
Edith L. Tiempo
poet, fiction writer, teacher and literary critic was a Filipino
writer in the English language.

Tiempo was born in Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya. Her

poems are intricate verbal transfigurations of
significant experiences as revealed, in two of her
much anthologized pieces, "Halaman" and "Bonsai." As
fictionist, Tiempo is as morally profound. Her
language has been marked as "descriptive but
unburdened by scrupulous detailing." She is an
influential tradition in Philippine Literature in English.
Together with her late husband, writer and critic
Edilberto K. Tiempo, they founded (in 1962) and
directed the Silliman National Writers Workshop in
Dumaguete City, which has produced some of the
Philippines' best writers. She was conferred the
National Artist Award for Literature in 1999.
•Do you value the same
thing the persona in
the poem holds dear?
Elements of • Imagery is the concrete
representation of a sense
Poetry impression, feeling, or idea that
triggers our imaginative ere-
enactment of a sensory
experience. Images may be visual
(something seen), aural
(something heard), tactile
(something felt), olfactory
(something smelled), or gustatory
(something tasted). Imagery may
also refer to a pattern of related
details in a poem.
• Alliteration is a
repetition of the same consonant
sounds in a sequence of words,
usually at the beginning of a
word or stressed syllable:
“descending dew drops;”
“luscious lemons.” Alliteration is
based on the sounds of letters,
rather than the spelling of
words; for example, “keen” and
“car” alliterate, but “car” and
“cite” do not.
• Assonance is the
repetition of similar
internal vowel sounds in
a sentence or a line of
poetry, as in “I rose and
told him of my woe.”
• Denotation refers to the
literal meaning of a word,
the "dictionary definition."¨
For example, if you look up
the word snake in a
dictionary, you will discover
that one of its denotative
meanings is "any of
numerous scaly, legless,
sometimes venomous
reptiles¡ having a long,
tapering, cylindrical body
and found in most tropical
and temperate regions."
• Connotation, on the other
hand, refers to the
associations that are
connected to a certain word
or the emotional suggestions
related to that word. The
connotative meanings of a
word exist together with the
denotative meanings. The
connotations for the word
snake could include evil or
danger.
• Symbolism is the use of
symbols to signify ideas
and qualities, by giving
them symbolic meanings
that are different from
their literal sense.
Theme is defined as a main idea or
an underlying meaning of a literary
work, which may be stated directly
or indirectly.
• Repetition is a literary
device that repeats the
same words or phrases a
few times to make an
idea clearer and more
memorable.
• Figurative language is a form of
language use in which the writers
and speakers mean something
other than the literal meaning of
their words. Two figures of speech
that are particularly important for
poetry are simile and metaphor.
• A simile involves a
comparison between
unlike things using like
or as. For instance, “My
love is like a red, red
rose.”
• A metaphor is a
comparison between
essentially unlike things
without a word such as
like or as. For example,
“My love is a red, red
rose.”
• Synecdoche is a type of
metaphor in which part
of something is used to
signify the whole, as
when a gossip is called a
“wagging tongue.”
• Metonymy is a type of
metaphor in which
something closely
associated with a
subject is substituted for
it, such as saying the
“silver screen” to mean
motion pictures.
• Personification is a
figurative comparison
endowing inanimate
things.