TRADITIONAL LITERARY GENRES

21ST CENTURY LITERATURE FROM THE

PHILIPPINES AND FROM THE WORLD

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 POETRY
TRADITIONAL LITERARY GENRES

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 POETRY— OBJECTIVES

ANALYZE A POEM AND IDENTIFY LITERARY ELEMENTS OF POETRY.

INFER LITERARY MEANING FROM LANGUAGE BASED ON USAGE.

APPRECIATE THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE FILIPINO WRITERS TO THE

DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONAL LITERATURE.

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DEFINITION OF POETRY
Poetry is a type of literature based on the interplay of
words and rhythm. It often employs rhyme and meter (a
set of rules governing the number and arrangement of
syllables in each line). In poetry, words are strung together
to form sounds, images, and ideas that might be too
complex or abstract to describe directly.

It is concerned with emotions. It is emotion shaped,

controlled, and contained in form. It often says something
significant; it attempts to achieve beauty. Poetry often uses
particular forms and conventions to expand the literal
meaning of the words, or to evoke emotional or sensual
responses. Devices such as assonance, alliteration,
onomatopoeia, and rhythm are sometimes used to achieve
musical or incantatory effects.
DEFINITION OF POETRY
How to Read A Poem?

To read a poem, one must concentrate on its particular

words and the way those words connect with one another.
Some poems utilize the same elements as fiction; however,
they are secondary to the images, metaphors, tones of voice,
and allusions (suggestions, references).

When reading a poem, one must begin with the title, for it
sometimes provides a clue, serving as a description or as a
clue.
 POETRY— motivating activity
WORKSHEET 1. Tell all the possible uses of this metal drum.

ALTERNATIVE MUSICAL CHARCOAL MAKER

INSTRUMENT

GARBAGE BIN/DRUM WATER STORAGE

WORKSHEE
PLANT CONTAINER STORAGE

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The Conversion J. N E I L C . G A R C I A

It happened in a metal drum.

They put me there, my family
That loved me. The water
Had been saved just for it, that day.
The laundry lay caked and smelly
In the flower-shaped basins.
Dishes soiled with fat and swill
Pilled high in the sink, and grew flies.
My cousins did not get washed that morning.
Lost in masks of snot and dust.

Their faces looked tired and resigned

To the dirty lot of children.
All the neighbours gathered around our
open-aired bathroom. Wives peered out
from the upper floor of their houses
into our yard. Father had arrived booming
with cousins, my uncles.
They were big, strong men, my uncles.
They turned the house inside-out
The Conversion J. N E I L C . G A R C I A
Looking for me. Curled up in the deepest corner
Of my dead mother's cabinet, father found me.
He dragged me down the stairs by the hair
Into the waiting arms of my uncles.
Because of modesty, I merely screamed and cried. Their
hands, swollen and black with hair, bore me
Up in the air, and touched me. Into the cold
Of the drum I slipped, the tingling
Too much to bear at times my knees
Felt like they had turned into water.

Waves swirled up and down around me, my head

Bobbing up and down. Father kept booming,
Girl or boy. I thought about it and squealed,
Girl. Water curled under my nose.
When I rose the same two words from father.
The same girl kept sinking deeper,
Breathing deeper in the churning void.
In the end I had to say what they all
Wanted me to say. I had to bring down this diversion To its happy
end, if only for the pot of rice
The Conversion J. N E I L C . G A R C I A
Left burning in the kitchen. I had to stop
Wearing my dead mother's clothes. In the mirror
I watched the holes on my ears grow smaller,
Until they looked as if they had never heard
Of rhinestones, nor felt their glassy weight.
I should feel happy that I'm now
Redeemed. And I do. Father died within five years
I got my wife pregnant with the next.
Our four children, all boys,
Are the joy of my manhood, my proof.

Cousins who never shed their masks

Play them for all their snot and grime.
Another child is on the way.
I have stopped caring what it will be.
Water is still a problem and the drum
Is still there, deep and rusty.
The bathroom has been roofed over with plastic. Scrubbed and clean,
my wife knows I like things.
She follows, though sometimes a pighead she is.
It does not hurt to show who is the man.
The Conversion J. N E I L C . G A R C I A
A woman needs some talking sense into. If not,
I hit her in the mouth to learn her.
Every time, swill drips from her shredded lips.
I drink with my uncles who all agree.
They should because tonight I own their souls
And the bottles they nuzzle like their prides.
While they boom and boom flies whirr
Over their heads that grew them. Though nobody
Remembers, I sometimes think of the girl
Who drowned somewhere in a dream many
dreams ago.
I see her at night with bubbles
Springing like flowers from her nose.
She is dying and before she sinks I try to touch
Her open face. But the water learns
To heal itself and closes around her like a wound.
I should feel sorry but I drown myself in gin before
I can. Better off dead, I say to myself
And my family that loves me for my bitter breath.
We die to rise to a better life.
The AUTHOR J. N E I L C . G A R C I A

J. Neil C. Garcia earned his AB Journalism, magna cum

laude, from the University of Santo Tomas in 1990; MA in
Comparative Literature in 1995, and PhD in English Studies:
Creative Writing in 2003 from the University of the Philippines
Diliman. He is currently a Professor of English, creative writing
and comparative literature at the College of Arts and
Letters, University of the Philippines Diliman, where he also
serves as an Associate for Poetry at the Likhaan: U.P. Institute
of Creative Writing.

He is the author of numerous poetry collections and works

in literary and cultural criticism. Between 1994 and 2006, he co-
edited the famous Ladlad series of Philippine gay writing. His
recent work is Post-colonialism and Filipino Poetics: Essays and
Critiques, a revised version of his very provocative Ph.
D dissertation.
 On persona
Persona is the speaker, the “I” of the poem. It is a fictional
personage, not at all equivalent to the poet, who may not be
speaking to the reader but to another character in the poem.

It is the person who is understood to be speaking (or

thinking or writing) a particular work. The persona is almost
invariably distinct from the author; it is the voice chosen by
the author for a particular artistic purpose. The persona may be
a character in the work or merely an unnamed narrator; but,
insofar as the manner and style of expression in the work
exhibit taste, prejudice, emotion, or other characteristics of a
human personality.

The term derives from the Latin persona, meaning an

actor’s mask, and is thus etymologically related to the
term dramatis personae, designating the characters in a drama.
 activity— on persona
WORKSHEET 2-A. Describe the “murdered girl” in the poem according to the
narrative of the persona.

MURDERED GIRL
WORKSHEE

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 activity— on persona
WORKSHEET 2-B. Draw the timeline of the persona’s journey towards his “conversion”. Use the
graphic organizer below. The movement timeline depends on your comprehension of his narrative.

A closet guy who struggled against his family.

His father knew and stated to punish him by forcefully drowning

him in a metal drum in order to ascertain him that he is a boy.

WORKSHEE
In order to prove that he is a man, he married a girl and had a
four children.

Started to drink gin and abuse his wife to show that he has
converted or he has become a man.

He feels apologetic for the “murdered girl” inside him.

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 On symbols
Symbols are images or concrete references that stand for
something else in reality and suggest another level of meaning.
Symbolism is the practice or art of using an object or a word to
represent an abstract idea. An action, person, place, word, or object
can all have a symbolic meaning.

It is the use of object or action with the intent of representing

something beyond the object itself.

Symbolism is often used by writers to enhance their writing.

Symbolism can give a literary work more richness and color and
can make the meaning of the work deeper.

In literature, symbolism can take many forms, including:

A figure of speech where an object, person, or situation has

another meaning other than its literal meaning.
The actions of a character, word, action, or event that have a
deeper meaning in the context of the whole story.
 activity— on symbols
WORKSHEET 3. In the table are the lines which were gotten from the poem. Circle the words/
phrases that contain symbolism. On the first column, provide the literal meaning; on the second
column, provide the symbolic meaning.

Lines From The Poem Literal Meaning Figurative Meaning

“But the water learns to heal itself and closes around A necessity for drinking; clear The persona learns to heal himself; medium
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her like a wound.” liquid that has no color. for conversion and/or for cleansing.

2 “It happened in a metal drum.”

“The laundry lay caked and smelly; dishes soiled with fat
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and swill piled high in the sink, and grew flies.”

4 “Father had arrived booming with cousins, my uncles.”

5 “Water curled under my nose.”

“When I rose the same two words from my father. The

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same girl kept sinking from deeper.”

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 On IRONY
Irony is a term with a range of meanings, all of them involving
some sort of discrepancy or incongruity. It should not be confused
with sarcasm which is simply language designed to insult or to
cause emotional pain.

Irony is used to suggest the difference between appearance and

reality, between expectation and fulfilment, the complexity of
experience, to furnish indirectly an evaluation of the author's
material, and at the same time to achieve compression.

Irony is often used for critical or humorous effect in literature,

music, art, and film (or a lesson). In conversation, people often
use verbal irony to express humor, affection, or emotion, by saying
the opposite of what they mean to somebody who is expected to
recognize the irony.
 On IRONY
Three Types of Irony:

1. Verbal Irony— it occurs when a narrator or character says one

thing and means something else. What is said is actually the
opposite of what is meant/intended.

2. Dramatic Irony— it occurs when a reader perceives something

that a character or narrator in a work of literature does not
know. It is also the contrast between what a character or
narrator says and what a reader knows to be true.

3. Situational Irony— it is the discrepancy between appearance and

reality, or between expectation and fulfilment, or between what
is and what would seem appropriate
 activity— on IRONY
WORKSHEET 4. Discuss the irony behind the paradoxical sentence from the poem.

"We die to rise a better life.”

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From Saudi with love Ariel Dim. Borlongan

Kamusta na minamahal kong kabiyak,

Okey ba ang grades ng ating mga anak?
Ang aking Junior, nagba-basketball pa ba?
Si Anna, tiyak na siya ang Reyna Elena
At hinangaan noong Flores de Mayo,
Kamusta na si Kumpareng Serapio?
Kumagat siya sa kumalat na tsismis
Na kumaliwa ang kanyang misis
Kaya nagkunwari siyang tinotoyo
Sa araw-gabing pagsubo ng pako.
Ako tuloy ang napilitang tumanggap
Ng extension sa kanyang pagtuwad,
Ayos ba ang padala kong colored TV?
Nadale ko iyon sa raffle. Anong sabi
Ni bayaw sa collection ni Springsteen?
Akala ko, makabayan siya, ba’t humiling
Ng imported? Teka nga muna, mahal,
Ano’t dumalang ang iyon liham?
Hindi aka bilib sa voice tape ni Inang
Na naloloko ka sa bagets na kapitbahay,
From Saudi with love Ariel Dim. Borlongan

Alam mo naman ang hirap ng buhay dito…

Nakasosora na ang manok na elado,
Oo, may ubas, may kahel, at mansanas.
Pero iba talaga ang Pilipinas.
Mula nang ilipat ako ng amo dito sa Riyadh
At wala nang balitang natanggap
Mula sa iyo at sa ating mga anak,
Laging alboroto ang aking utak.
Sa homesick, natukso ako sa beauty
Ng misis ng aking among Arabe.
Patawad. Huling liham ko na ito.
Sa Biyernes, pupugutan na ako ng ulo.
On imagery
Imagery refers to expressions evocative of
sensuous appeal. It may be in the form of direct
description or may be figurative (visual, auditory,
kinesthetic, olfactory, and gustatory). It is the use
of words to create pictures.

In other words, it is the creation of pictures

or images in the mind of the reader’s by the use
of words that appeal to the senses.

Imagery is the author’s use of descriptive and

figurative language to represent ideas, actions and
entities in a way that it appeals to a reader’s
physical sense to create “mental images”.
On imagery
Visual imagery appeals to the sense of sight, and plays the largest role in
imagery in literature. Anything relating to visual scenes, graphics, pictures, or the
sense of sight.

“The deep blue hues of twilight were reflected in the still water; the slight glint
of moonlight peeked through the clouds just enough to make out the silhouette
of a passing ship”.

Auditory imagery relates to sounds, noises, music, sense of hearing or choosing

words with a sound that imitates real sounds in the form of onomatopoeia.
Words such as “bang!” “achoo!” “cacaw!” "buzz!" all work to describe sounds that
most people are familiar with.

“The rooster crowed at early dawn, a sign that it was time to start the day.
John woke up, listening to the quiet murmurs of his children in the kitchen
below; the clang of pots and pans signaled that breakfast was almost ready”.
On imagery
Olfactory imagery concerns aromas, smell, odors, scents, or the sense of smell.
Olfactory imagery describes a particular scent.

“The sweet scent of maple wafted through the room, causing Stephanie to stop
what she was doing and sniff the air. A second waft of scent carried the
underlying smoky scent of bacon; a scent only bacon straight of the he grill
could have”.

Gustatory imagery pertains to tastes, flavors, palates or the sense of taste. In

other words, gustatory imagery refers to words, descriptions or pictures in your
brain that make you think of taste.

“Jason took one look at the cupcake in front of him and couldn’t wait another
second – he stuffed it right into his mouth. The rich, sweet, sugary taste of
chocolate ran over his taste buds as he chewed and swallowed the whole dessert
in less than ten seconds”.
On imagery
Tactile imagery concerns to physical touches, textures or the sense of touch.

“Sarah placed her bare hand on the cold snow. It was wet at first, then the
frigid cold set in like a thousand needles, all pricking her palm at once”.

Kinesthetic imagery extends beyond the five senses. This imagery deals with
the movement or action of objects or people. It pertains to movements or the
sense of bodily motion.

“The birds flapped their wings in excitement, the promise of food so close. They
sprung out of the tree, one by one, soaring through the branches and swooping
down low to the pile of berries beneath the tree”.
On imagery
Organic imagery concerns on feeling or emotion within the reader. Organic
imagery or subjective imagery, pertains to personal experiences of a character's
body, including emotion and the senses of hunger, thirst, fatigue, and pain.

You might think you made a new world or a new self, but your old self is
always gonna be there, just below the surface, and if something happens, it’ll
stick its head out and say ‘Hi.’ – Haruki Murakami, The Wind-Up Bird
Chronicle
 activity— on imagery
WORKSHEET 5. Complete the table below by identifying the type of sensory images listed
on the left column. The first is done for you.

Lines From The Poem Imagery

1 “Ang aking Junior, nagba-babasketball pa ba?” Kinesthetic
2 “siya ang Reyna Elena”
3 “noong Flores de Mayo”
4 “Kumalat na tsismis”
5 “pagsubo ng pako”
6 “Colored TV”
7 “Voice tape in Inang”
8 “Nakakasora na ang manok na elado”
9 “ubas, kahel, at mansanas”
10 “pupugutan ako ng ulo”

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On tone
Tone is the attitude of the speaker or persona in the
poem towards another character or towards his subject
matter: angry, hopeful, bitter, nostalgic, compassionate,
admiring, sorrowful, amused, sincere, sarcastic, etc. It is
generally conveyed through the choice of words, or the
viewpoint of a writer on a particular subject.

MOOD VERSUS TONE

What is mood in writing? Mood—also known as atmosphere
—is the overall feeling for the audience an author creates
in his writing. When you read a text and you have a
particular feeling that you associate with the descriptive
language, you are experiencing mood.

What is tone in writing? Tone is different from mood in

that it is the speaker’s attitude—not the audience’s—toward
a subject. How the audience feels has nothing to do with
tone.
On THEME
Theme is the central message or
meaning of the poem. The truth
about life revealed enlightened in the
poem. It can be stated directly or
indirectly.

It is the human condition and the

system of values that the topic of the
LITERATURE deals with.

It is important not to confuse a

theme of a literary work with
its subject. Subject is a topic that acts
as a foundation for a literary work,
while a theme is an opinion expressed
on the subject.
 activity— reading comprehension
ON “THE CONVERSION”

1. Who should be held liable to the death of the girl in the persona’s body? Can we blame
the killer?
2. How do you plan to give justice to the death of the girl in the persona’s body? Expound
and elaborate your plan.
3. How does poem represent, among other things, the social and psychological conflicts of gay
identity coming of age in heterosexist world?

ON “FROM SAUDI WITH LOVE”

1. Who is the persona of the poem? From the code switching used by this persona, make an
inference as to the kind of person he is.
2. Who is he talking to? What are his feelings for this person?

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HOW TO ANALYZE POETRY?
TITLE WORD MEANING IMAGERY

List any unfamiliar words. Tell which particular sense

What does the title tell?
Look up their denotative (sight, sound, feel, taste,
How does the title help in
meanings in dictionary. smell) the images appeal to.
our understanding of the
Consider connotations of What does each image
poem?
naming words, describing suggest?
words and action words.

SYMBOLS FIGURES OF SPEECH THEME

List any words which you Point out the figures of What purpose does the poem
think may be symbols. speech. serve?
Tell what the symbols may Explain the figures that How would you connect the
stand for. convey ideas most clearly imagery and tone with the
and forcefully. theme?