Conflict as Part of the Plot

Conflict is the opposition of persons or forces in a story

that give rise to the dramatic action in a literary work. It is the
basic tension, predicament, or challenge that propels a story’s
plot.
Types of Conflict
1. Person vs. Person is a type of conflict where one character
in the story has a problem with one or more of the other
characters.

2. Person vs. Society is a type of conflict where a character

has a conflict or problem with some element of society -
the school, the law, the accepted way of doing things, and
so on.
3. Person vs. Self is a type of a conflict where a
character has trouble deciding what to do in a
particular situation.

4. Person vs. Nature is a type of a conflict where a

character has a problem with some natural
happening: a snowstorm, an avalanche, the bitter
cold or any elements common to nature.

5. Person vs. fate is a type of conflict where a

character has to battle what seems to be an
uncontrollable problem. Whenever the problem
seems to be a strange or unbelievable coincidence,
fate can be considered the cause and effect.
D. Point of View determines the narrator of the
story, the one who tells it from different points of
view.

Types of Point of View

1. First-Person Point of View is a Character-narrator

who tells the story in the “I” voice, expressing his
own views. He is either a minor or main character
that tells the story in his own words.

2. Third-Person Omniscient Point of View is a

narrator that tells the story from an all-knowing
point of view. He sees the mind of all the characters.
3. Third-Person Limited Point of View has a narrator
that tells only what he can see or hear “inside the
world” of the story. This narrator is otherwise known
as “camera technique narrator” as he does not reveal
what the character are thinking and feeling.

4. Third-Person Central Point of View has a

narrator that limits narration to what the central
character thinks, feels, does, and what and whom
the central character observes.

4. Third-Person Editorial Point of View has a

narrator that comments on the action by telling the
readers its significance or evaluating the behavior
of the characters.
E. Theme is a significant truth about life and its
nature which takes place in the illustration of
the actions, preoccupations, and decisions of the
character.
Principles in Stating the Theme of the
Story
1. It reports for all major details of the
story.
2. It may be avowed in more than one way.
3. It is stated in complete statements.
4. It asserts a sweeping statement about life.
5. It avoids statements that condense the
theme to some familiar adage, aphorism,
dictum, maxim, saying, or value.
Poetry

Poetry is a patterned form of verbal or written

expression of ideas in concentrated, imaginative, and
rhythmical terms that often contain the elements of
sense , sound, and structure. It is considered as the
oldest literary form.
Poetry has implied meaning/s which is/are evoked in
the carefully selected words. It is often considered as
the most difficult and most sophisticated of all literary
genres. One of its distinct characteristics is that other
literary forms, it is more musical.
Elements of Poetry

A. Sense of the Poem

1. Denotation vs. Connotation
Denotation is the dictionary meaning of the word
while connotation is the suggested or implied
meaning/s associated with the word beyond its
dictionary definition.
2. Imagery is the use of sensory details or
descriptions that appeal to one or more of the five
senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell.
These are otherwise known as “senses of the
mind.”
3. Figurative Language is a language used for
descriptive effect in order to convey ideas or
emotions which are not literally true but express
some truth beyond the literal level.
 Figures of Speech are specified devices or a kind of figurative
language that uses words, phrases, and sentences in a non-literal
definition but, rather, gives meanings in abstractions.
Types of Figures of Speech
a. Allusion is a reference in a work of literature to a
character, a place, or a situation from history,
literature, the bible, mythology, scientific event,
character, or place.
I imagine my thus,
my fearless navigator, as you scribe:
Antonio Pigafetta annotating
The progress of our journey inside
The Trinidad, the study galleon
Of our newfangled love.
- Ralph Semino Galan, “You Name”
b. Antithesis is a disparity of words of ideas.
It is virtually a sea but dry like a heart
That has forgotten compassion.

- Mike Maniquiz, “Lahar on my Mind”

c. Apostrophe is an address to an inanimate object, an
idea, or a person who is absent/long dead.
For what were you before the birth of the daystar
O my
Soul where were you in the deep and darkest night?
-Leonides Benesa,
“Fragmentss: The Deserts of God”
d. Hyperbole is an exaggeration used to express
strong emotion to make a point, or evoke humor.
“This heat,” I mutter,
“melts the very bones.”
- Merlie M. Alunan, “Young
Man in a Jeepney”

e. Irony is a contrast or discrepancy between

appearance and reality.
Neither is man aware of the unkind
flight of time; for, though it gives him life,
It is dragging him nearer his grave.
-Juan de Atayde, “The Man”
f. Litotes is a deliberate sarcasm used to affirm by
negating opposite.
Even in his plain dress’
I find him not at all displeasing.
-Anonymous
g. Metaphor implies comparison instead of a direct
statement and that equates two seemingly unlike
things or ideas.
Forgive these words that love impart,
And pleading, bare the poet’s breast;
And if a rose with thorns thou art,
Yet on my breast that rose may rest.
-Fernando Maramag, ‘ Rural Maid’
h. Metonomy is the use of one word to stand for a related term
or replacement of word that relates to the thing or person to
be named for the named itself.
To say that the crown will have an heir
Is to assume a new life, a new beginning
(the crown substitutes for the word majesty, king, queen, and the
like)
-Anonymous
i. Onomatopoeia is the use of a word/phrase that actually
imitates or suggests the sound of what it describes.
And early evening, like croaking
Of the frogs, evoking memories lost.
- Ralph Semino Galan, “Cartanella”
 j. Oxymoron is putting together two opposite ideas in one
statement.
It is futile to ask for guidance or direction
In this unmappable landscape, the history
And scene of our unending sacrifice.
-Francis M. Santos, “Strum and Drug”
k. Paradox is a phrase or statement that seems to be
impossible or contradictory but is nevertheless true,
literally or figuratively.
This shows
The absolute necessity
Of what has “no use.”
- Chuang Tzu, “ The Useless”
l. Personification is giving human attributes/characteristics
to inanimate objects, an animal, force of nature, or an idea.
Sunflowers pushed
Out of the shadows
Betrayed into tracking
The sun
- Ramon T. Torrevillas, “Assylum Flowers”
m. Simile uses a word or phrase such as “as” or “like”
to compare seemingly unlike things or ideas.
His lips as soft as rose petals
Softly dry my tear drenched face
Melting the cold spell I cast upon myself.
-Judi Arco Dizon, “The One I Love”
n. Synecdoche is the naming parts to suggest the whole.

Respect is due for snowy hair

Life they lived is beyond compare
(snowy hair pertains to elder people)
- Anonymous
B. Sound of a Poem
1. Tone Color is achieved through repetition.
a. Repetition of Single Sounds
• Alliteration is the repetition of similar and
accented sounds at the beginning of words.
In a summer season, what soft was the sonnet…
- Piers Plowman
• Assonance is the repetition of similar accented vowel sound.
Thou still unravished bride of quietness,
Thou foster child of silence and slow time.
- Ode on a Grecian Urn

• Consonance is the repetition of similar consonant

sound typically within or at the end of words.
“Out of this house” – said rider to reader
“Yours never will” – said farer to fearer
“They’re looking for you” said hearer to horror,
“As he left them there, as he left them there.
- O Where Are You Going?
• Rhyme is the repetition of the same stressed vowel sounds
and any succeeding sounds in two or more words.
I think that I shall never see
A poem as lovely as a tree.
- Trees

Types of Ryhme
Internal Rhyme – rhyme within the line
Terminal Rhyme – rhyme found at the end of the line.
Rhyme Scheme is a pattern of rhyme form that ends a
stanza or a poem. The rhyme scheme is designated by
the assignment of a different letter of the alphabet to
each new rhyme.
 Helen, thy beauty is to me a
Like those Nicean barks of yore, b
That gently, o’re a perfumed sea, a
The weary, way-worn wanderer bore b
To his own native shore b

b. Repetition of Words
My dreams are dreams of thee, fair maid.
- Rural Maid
c. Repetition of Sentences of Phrases
I dream that one day our voices will be heard
I dream that one day our hope becomes worth.
- Paraiso

2. Rhythm is the pattern of beats created by the arrangement

of stressed and unstressed syllables, which gives musical
quality and adds emphasis to certain words and thus helps
convey the meaning of the poem. The effect is derived
from the sounds employed, the varying pitches, stresses,
volumes, and durations.
3. Meter is a regular recurrence of stressed and unstressed
syllables that give a line of poetry a more or less
predictable rhythm. Its unit of measure is termed as “foot”
which usually contains an accented syllables and one or
two unaccented syllables.
 Table of Metrical Feet

Name of Foot Pattern of Accent

Iambic Unaccented, Accented

Trochaic Accented, Unaccented

Anapestic Unaccented, Unaccented, Accented

Dactylic Accented, Unaccented, Unaccented

Spondaic Accented, Accented

 Foot is the basic unit of meter consisting of a
group two or three syllables.

Scansion is the process of determining the

prevailing foot in a line of poetry, identifying the
types and sequence of different feet. It is also the
process of measuring verse; that is, marking
accented and unaccented syllables, dividing the lines
into feet identifying the metrical pattern and noting
significant variations from the pattern.
 Table of Line Lengths

Name of Feet/Line Measure

One foot Monometer
Two feet Dimeter
Three feet Trimeter
Four feet Tetrameter
Five feet Pentameter
Six feet Hexameter
Seven feet Heptameter
Eight feet Octameter
C. Structure of the Poem is the manner in which
words are arranged and parts are organized to form
a whole form.

1. Word and its Order is the grouping and choosing of

words in verses where more often, poets arrange them in
the unnatural order to achieve an effect.
2. Syntax is an effect achieved where words are fractured
to have a desired effect.
3. Ellipsis is the omission of words or several words that
clearly identify the understanding of an expression.
4. Punctuation is the use of meaningful symbol/s that
help/s provide meaning clues.
Structure also refers to the way the poem is organized.
This corresponds to the different types.
 Types of Poetry

a.Narrative Poem is the poem that tells a

story.
b. Lyric Poem is the descriptive or
expository in nature where the poet is
concerned mainly with presenting a scene
in words, conveying sensory richness of
his subject, or the revelation of ideas or
emotions.
c. Dramatic Poem is a poem where a story
is told through the verse dialogue of the
characters and a narrator.
 Structure also talks about:
Poem Appreciation is a achieved not only when one
has comprehended the plain sense or information
communicated by the poem; it is also achieved if the
attitude and feeling conveyed are captured, together with
the larger meaning of the work, which is only possible when
the tone and symbolic meaning are discerned.

a. Tone is the writer’s attitude toward his subject,

mood, and moral view. It is the feeling that the
poem has created in the reader. It is communicated
by the writer’s or speaker’s attitude toward his
subject, his imagined audience, or himself. It is the
emotional coloring of the work which is indicated
by the inflection of the speaker’s voice.
b. Symbol is an image that become so
suggestive that it takes so much more meaning
than its descriptive value. It urges the reader to
look beyond literal significance of the poem’s
statement of action: the connotations of the
word, repetition, placement, or other
indications of emphasis. It is considered as the
richest and at the same time the most difficult
of all the poetical figures.
 SILENT TRAILS
Marcelo de Gracia Concepcion

Silent trails,
Silent are the trails of Benguet hills
When the mist veils the sun-
Even the wind stirs the ferns
And the bamboo brakes sing
Their echoey murmurs,
And the laden Benguet women pass,
Beating their pakkongs
In cadenced monotones

Even so,
These trails are lonely
And deep are the ravines
And higher still the skies