1

Chapter I

INTRODUCTION

“The Heavens declare the Glory of God;

and the firmament shows his handiwork. Day
unto day utters speech, and night unto night
reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor
language where their voice is not heard.”
-Psalm 19:1-3

Background of the Study

Literature gives one a total perception of what had been

in the glorious past. It is a point of entry into the dustbin

of history of any country. Literary writings, reveal the

sublime feelings, deepest emotions and thoughts of the

author, of the race and of the time or era it was wrote.

Hence, literature is a faithful reproduction of life.

Furthermore, literature, though, faintheartedly hides in the

covers of the book, has given us insights, ideas, and delights

throughout the ages. Consequently, the effects of literary

writings in criticizing the social order is tremendous and

history, undeniably, bears witness to it.

According to the Filipino Historian Teodoro Agoncillo

and Renato Perdon who wrote the book titled, “The

Americanization of Asia,” the Philippine curriculum mostly

celebrates foreign writers instead of embracing the country’s

local writings and literature that defines who the Filipinos

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really are. This observed and felt scenario encouraged the

researchers to conduct a research using Dr. Jose Rizal’s

poems.

Poetry as a division of literature demands overarching

understanding of theories and principles underlying it. It

connotes complexities; as observed, it requires teachers to

be knowledgeable of its forms and contents. Hence, poetry is

taught for the thoughts, emotions, and idea it contains. It

should be taught as carrier of heritage of the people and

manifestation of a creative genius of the race. Thus, students

and teachers must be motivated well when in contact with the

literary writings.

According to Felix Ladeño the end product of any learning

activity is the attainment of the desired objectives. This

apparently is the bone of contention in the pedagogy of

poetry. As one pores over the magic of poetry and deciphers

the messages it conveys, it brings a varied spate of feelings

in expressing the inexpressible.

The school, as an institution, is of help in contributing

to the formation of human beings. Literature as a subject or

course that centers on individual in the society and his

environment should be given emphasis in all levels of

education to foster responsibility and compassionate care to

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the ecosystem that is declining due to the fact that people

themselves no longer respect the mother nature.

In the Philippine setting, no man of letters has ever

lived more beautifully, thought more nobly, and suffered more

deeply than Jose Rizal wrote Teofilo Tuazon. Jose Rizal is

indeed a literary giant.

Most often, people forget the fact that Dr. Jose Rizal

is also a naturalist. Much of Rizal’s poetry pieces show

extreme adoration to his environment. Rizal’s poems, though

obliquely, contain his brazen love for nature. Rizal’s poetry

displays mystical experiences, union with the external

nature, and quite a reflection expounded in a smooth rolling

phrases of blank verses. The fascination communicated by Jose

Rizal to nature and its wonders, as extols by his poetry, is

one reason of this study. And since Dr. Jose Rizal is the

country’s national hero and his writings ignited the hearts

of the Filipino people in the past to revolutionize against

the anomalous system of the Spaniards, the researchers saw it

apt to also utilize Rizal’s poetry to call for attention in

preserving and conserving the people’s common home- the

earth. As people bring his works abreast, this is now the

right time to act and ponder the plunder that people have

done to the common home with whom people’s share life.

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The world people living seems to have lost its physical

wonders. People no longer regard the world he/she is living;

people seems to embrace what often called as throwaway culture

in which one is engrossed in consumerism, irresponsible urban

development that caused environmental degradation and global

warming. Inspired by this unwholesome and disordered

condition of our ecosystem this research paper streamlining

Rizal’s poetry draw reflections to all these untoward

occurrences to people’s common home- the earth, that in the

words of St. Francis of Assisi “our sister with whom we share

our life and a beautiful mother who embraces us,” who is now

crying and calling for people’s help.

To encapsulate, this study tried to bring back ardor and

appreciation to Filipino poetry, specifically, Rizal’s poems

that pose extreme romance with nature. Believing that

romanticism is the strongest theory among many others in

literary criticism, the researchers chose to use this for

their poem analysis. This study also employed mimetic theory

of Aristotle which states that literature is a representation

of life and explication de texte that allows a limited reader

response.
 5

Objectives of the Study

This study aimed at analyzing Rizal’s romanticism that

speaks about his brazen love for nature and the environment

on which he often took inspiration for his poetry.

Specifically, this study aimed to answer the hereunder

objectives:

1. Illustrate tenets of romanticism reflected in the

lines of Dr. Jose Rizal’s selected poems.

2. Analyzing Dr. Jose Rizal’s poems based on

Wordsworth’s romanticism, in terms of:

a) action and situation;

b) feelings recollected in tranquility;

c) language used; and

d) similitude in dissimilitude.

3. Draw reflections of this study for the preservation

and conservation of people’s ecosystem.

4. Draw implications of this study in language and

literature teaching.

Significance of the Study

This rigorous study is a combined comprehensive reading

and analysis of Dr. Jose Rizal’s poetry which serve as an

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opener for environmental awareness, environmentalism via

literature, and Rizal’s romanticism. Particularly, this study

would be beneficial to:

Literature Classes. Poetry, as one of the divisions of

literature, is a fascinating lesson that students should fall

in love with. Sometimes because of the diction used, which

oftentimes complicates the text, students are having a hard

time unlocking the meaning of the printed text. Technically,

this would aid them in fully analyzing the poems especially

those with touch of extreme admiration to nature. This would

also serve as an eye-opener to those students who abhor

learning Philippine literature.

Literary Criticism Students. Any piece of literature can

be interpreted using different theories and approaches. This

study would further broaden their understanding in using

Wordsworth’s romanticism in analyzing a certain literary

piece. The signposts and tenets presented and studied would

further expound their knowledge on using Romanticist approach

in critiquing a certain poem or writing. Thus, this endeavor

would help them in critiquing a literary masterpiece anchored

on the theory of romanticism.

Students taking P.I. 311 Rizal’s Life, Works, and

Writings. Dr. Jose Rizal is oftentimes recognized by his poems

 7

“My Retreat”, “To My Fellow Children,” and “To the Filipino

Youth”. It is therefore fitting for this study to present

some of the poems left unchecked or not-really-famous poems

of Dr. Jose Rizal and acquaint them with the readers. This

would further stir their imagination as they do an in-depth

analysis of the writings of the national hero who is also a

literary giant.

Teachers of P.I. 311 Rizal’s Life, Works, and Writings.

This study as anchored on Rizal’s poetry pieces would help

them understand better, or would further enhance their

various interpretation of Dr. Jose Rizal’s poetry. This also

will help them to innovate approaches and methods to the

teaching of P.I. Rizal’s Life, Works, and Writings,

especially poetry pieces.

Literature Teachers. As the Chinese proverb says “A

thousand teachers, a thousand methods.” This study would help

them enhance their teaching approach and add to their methods

of teaching and strategies. Poetry can be made pleasurable if

teachers know how to interpret and analyze the poetic lines

especially those of Dr. Jose Rizal. This would also be the

chance for them to incorporate in their teachings of Rizal’s

poetry the menace which the climate change has brought forth

because of people’s irresponsibility to their surroundings.

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Poetry Lovers and Readers. There are many of them, a

whole lot more. These individuals who are delighted in tasting

the lines, rhythms, and diction of every written poem; some

of them are avid fanatics of Dr. Jose Rizal’s write-ups. With

this study, the researchers are thinking positive that this

would add to their cabin or pile of poems. They will be awed

at Rizal’s style of writing and the message it brings.

Nature Lovers. There are humans who have an

extraordinary reverence towards trees, landscapes, lakes, and

the like. These people are parallel to that of Dr. Jose Rizal

who immediately finds meaning and emotions to his ambiance.

This study would further encourage them of making something

invaluable for our environment. They would become the new

evangelizers on conserving and preserving our nature, which

in the words of St. Francis of Assisi, is everyone’s sister.

Environmentalists. Dr. Jose Rizal is a naturalist and

environmentalist, therefore, it is fitting that this research

would benefit them. Further, these are people who tirelessly

work for the preservation and conservation of the

environment. This research would be a quasi-advocacy, helping

them in calling the attention of people on matters that calls

for environmental awareness on climate change and global

warming. Moreover, the researchers are optimistic that this

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research would be used for environmental pedagogy and

advocacy.

The researchers further aim to make everyone a catalyst

for environmentalism. As Dr. Jose Rizal wield his pen against

colonizers, this research also wields its analysis to call

for attention, education, and awareness for the nature.

Department of Education (DepEd) and Curriculum Crafters.

This study is also for the DepEd and Curriculum Crafters to

incorporate in the curriculum the poems of Jose Rizal so

teachers may have an avenue to further explains each one’s

duty of caring the environment. This research would foster

environmentalism in the minds of learners. As Pope Francis

exhorted in his encyclical, ‘Good education plants seeds when

people are young, and these continue to bear fruit throughout

life.’

University and College of Education Library. The product

of this study will add to the vast collection of researches

in the bookshelves of the library. This would be of great use

for students conducting the same study, approach, and theory.

This would be useful for upcoming generations.

Neophytes and Future Researchers. This research would

first become their related studies. Second, this is

beneficial to those who are conducting the same research using

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textual analysis on selected poems and romanticism as its

anchored theory. Lastly, this will serve as their guide in

conceptualizing research studies, theoretical framework and

aid throughout the course.

Scope and Limitations of the Study

This study focused on Dr. Jose Protacio Rizal’s poetry

especially his poems containing his brazen love for nature.

Five poems that possess naturalistic themes were taken as

samples of the study by the researchers with the desire to

inculcate reflections on the significance of the common home-

the earth thereby appreciating its essence as part of God’s

creation and draw pedagogical conclusions on teaching Rizal’s

poetry in literature.

Dr. Jose Rizal had written many poems from his childhood,

in the prison cell, and finally before his firing squad.

However, the poems under study were chosen according to their

naturalistic themes and based on the criteria of Wordsworth’s

romanticism, to wit:

1. Flowers among Flowers1

1 http://www.poemhunter.com/jose-rizal/poems/ (2004) Jose Rizal

University Retrieved January 15, 2017
 11

2. Hymn to Talisay

3. In Memory of my Town (Un Recuerdo a Mi Pueblo)

4. My Retreat (Mi Ritero)

5. To the Flowers of Heidelberg (A Las Flores de

Heidelberg)

Most of his poems were written in Spanish. Hence, the

researchers used only one (1) reference to avoid

discrepancies, namely; Jose Rizal: Life, Works, and Writings

of a Genius, Writer, Scientist, and National Hero written by

Gregorio F. Zaide and Sonia M. Zaide. Yet, one poem

aforementioned above did not come from the reference book

cited. Noticeably, the poem footnoted were taken from the

impeccable website of Jose Rizal University.

From these, the researchers were challenged to demystify

Dr. Jose Rizal’s poems based on Wordsworth’s romanticism and

drew implications to both ecological conservation and

teaching of Rizal’s poetry in literature. However,

limitations were considered in this study.

In any qualitative research, the analysis is the primary

problem. Every reader has his/her own interpretation of the

text and can possibly fall to subjectivity. Rizal’s poetry

pieces are no exemption to this. However, the authors’ main

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analysis is grounded on Wordsworth’s romanticism and based

mainly on the signposts of the theory he offered.

The study, to avoid perplexities, did not cover all the

poetry of Dr. Jose Rizal. This is the limitation of this

study. Besides, this study only looked at the place of Dr.

Jose Rizal’s romantic poems and the questions that the

literary theory poses and its implications to both caring of

ecosystem and teaching of literature.

Theoretical Framework

This study focused on textual analysis of Dr. Jose

Rizal’s poetry specifically using Wordsworth’s Romanticism as

a core theory.

Wordsworth’s romanticism views poetry as the spontaneous

overflow of powerful feelings recollected in tranquility. The

feeling therein developed gives importance to the action and

situation; feelings and emotions recollected in tranquility;

the language use; and the metaphor, the similitude in

dissimilitude.2

2 L.P.E. De la Rosa. A Teaching Guide on Literary Criticism.

(University of Eastern Philippines, 2003), p. 10.
 13

Generally, romanticism was characterized by its emphasis

on emotion and individualism as well as glorification of all

the past and nature, preferring the medieval rather than the

classical.3 It further said that it gets away from what is

considered aesthetic standard of writing during those times.

Moreover, romanticism was an echo in an attempt to obstruct

urban sprawl, industrialization, and call for people not to

take for granted their agrarian lives. Hence most of the

romanticist turn their writings to nature to encourage people

to return to countryside and continue living simply. Its

foundation is based upon the poet’s lifelong conviction that

truth and joy lay in the union of the individual with external

nature and that the experience could be made clear to others

in an artistic, symbolic form.4

To William Wordsworth, poetry is something perceived by

one’s mind or self-revealed by the external stimuli and one

begins to have an ‘overflow of powerful emotions or feelings,’

to which the poet would later ‘recollect in his tranquility.’

Poetry for Wordsworth is a simple, ordinary emotion that even

if one is already detached from the external stimuli or actual

3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanticism Retrieved January 29,

2017.

4 Romanticism. Elements of Literature. 1997 edition. (Orlando,

Florida, USA: Holt Reinheart and Winston, 1997), p. 630.

 14

environment perceived by the senses one can still vibrantly

remember the feelings and emotions he/she experienced and

that he/she would later ‘recollects it in his tranquility,’

evoking a new but corresponding emotion resulting of creation

of new ideas. Furthermore, Wordsworth sees poetry in terms of

its production, in terms of the method of its composition,

intimately linking the poem’s conception with the original

experience of the poet.5

It looks with the joy of rediscovery on what it sees as

unestranged conditions: early childhood, traditional rural

labor, wise passiveness, and the self-absorbed nature. The

romantic gaze frequently belongs to a lone figure stilled in

contemplation of imminent nature, or of landscapes suggestive

of infinity- mountains, chasms, oceans, distant plains.6

Romanticism reflects a deep admiration to nature. For

the romantics, there is nature and there are human beings to

experience nature. Romantic philosophers believe in the

Divine being; hence, nature for them is a reality that evokes

feelings to people containing truth.

5 F. J. Ladeño. Wordsworth Green-field Sacramentalism: An

Ecocriticism. (Unpublished Dissertation, University of Eastern
Philippines, 2012), p. 13.

6 P. Waugh. Literary Theory and Criticism. (New York: Oxford

University Press, Inc., 2006), p. 540-541.

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Moreover, being qualitative, this study is also anchored

on the explication de texte, a French formalist method of

literary analysis that allows for a limited reader response,

similar to close reading in the English speaking literary

tradition.7 It is a finely detailed, very specific examination

of prose and poetry in order to find the focus or design of

the work.8 This operates on the premise that literature, as

artifice, will be more fully understood and appreciated to

the extent that the nature and interrelations of its parts

are perceived, and that understanding will take the form of

insight into the theme of the work in question.9 The method

involves a detailed yet relatively objective examination of

structure, style, imagery, and other aspects of a work. It

was particularly advocated by Gustave Lanson.10

The mimetic theory proposed by Aristotle also guides the

course of this study which states that literature is a

representation of life. Aristotle primarily, believed that a

form manifests itself through the concrete and the concrete

R. Welleck., et.al. The Theory of Literature. Third Edition.

7

(New York: Harcourt, Brace, and World, Inc.,1956), p. 139.

8 Op Cit. Wordsworth Green-field Sacramentalism: An Ecocriticism,

p.17.

http://theliterarylink.com/closereading.html, Retrieved January

9

15, 2017.

10 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explication_de_Texte Retrieved

January 15, 2017.

 16

takes meaning with ordered principles. The poet imitates a

form of nature and reshapes it and thus, he is both an

imitator and a creator.11 The mimetic theory holds that a

literary work of art is a re-creation, a representation, or

a re-combination of what is found in reality. It further

suggests that literature mirrors life.12 With this theory, the

present study would try to judge Rizal’s poetry in terms of

imitation in his external environment which he observed and

felt. Moreover, it will try to analyze Rizal’s poetry in

relation to reality and to address the present ecological

crises. Thus, this theory is applicably used as an effective

way to transcend real-life situations and human actions.

With these theories, literature becomes the best avenues

in the world of pedagogy to instill awareness and react to

the present dilemma the world is experiencing, especially on

the part of ecosystem that is crying for help against these

untoward actions of people.

11 http://www.bachelorandmaster.com/criticaltheories/about mimetic

theory.html#.WHYR9Pl97Dc Retrieved January 25, 2017.

12 C. M. Surio and H. Visaya. Contextualizing the United Nations

Conventions on the Rights of the Child in R.Riordans’s Percy Jackson and
the Olympians, The Lightning Thief. (Unpublished Language and Literature
Research, College of Education, University of Eastern Philippines, 2016),
p. 14.
 17

Conceptual Framework

This study focused on Dr. Jose Rizal’s poems especially

those with touch of nature or having naturalistic themes.

From these, the researchers tried to establish the tenets of

romanticism and Rizal’s love for nature which are implicitly

and explicitly mirrored in his poetry pieces. Wordsworth’s

romanticism was used in analyzing the action and situation,

emotions recollected in tranquility, the language used, the

similitude in dissimilitude.

From there, the researchers attempted to relate

implications in teaching language and literature and the

researchers came up with an analysis of Rizal’s poems drawing

reflections on preserving and conserving the ecosystem.

The paradigm that follows outlines the concept of the

study.
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Paradigm

Dr. Jose Protacio

Rizal’s poetry

WORDSWORTH’S ROMANTICISM

 Action and situation

 Feelings recollected
in tranquility
 Language used and;
 Similitude in
dissimilitude.

Reflections in Preserving
Implications to Teaching
and Conserving the
Language and Literature
Ecology/Ecosystem.

Figure 1. A schematic diagram showing the concept of the

study.
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Definition of Terms

The following terms are herein defined conceptually and

operationally to facilitate better understanding throughout

the course of the study. For some terms it was deemed

insignificant to include the way it was used in the study

because the conceptual meaning is also operationally used.

Addressee. The person whom the speaker is directing

his/her poems or any piece of text in literature. In this

study, it refers to the persons or people whom Jose Rizal

wanted to address his poetry.

Analysis. refers to the process of dividing the whole

into the basic parts of the elements.13 Operationally, it is

the process to which Rizal’s poems underwent in order to

determine tenets of romanticism, give reflections on caring

of our ecosystem and draw implication on teaching language

and literature.

Ecology. a branch of science concerned with the

interrelationship of organisms and their environments. In

this study the term is used to find and bring to light

reflections on Rizal’s poetry.

13 M. Bonabon and M. Saluib. Psychological and Biographical Readings

on Edgar Allan Poe’s tales of Horror: Implications to Teaching Literature.

(Undergraduate Thesis, University of Eastern Philippines, 2012), p.17.
 20

Environmentalism. Conceptually and operationally, it

contrasts with ‘deep ecology’- the belief that the natural

world can be ‘managed’ for the benefit of humanity while

causing as little damage to biosphere as possible within the

existing culture-nature relationship.14

Environmentalists. They are concerned about

environmental quality especially if the human environment

with respect to the control of pollution.15 Operationally,

they are advocators for preservation and conservation of our

natural resources.

Environmental Conservation and Preservation.

Denotatively and operationally is defined as the sustainable

use and management of natural resources including wildlife,

water, air, and earth deposits, both renewable and non-

renewable. It attempts to protect those parts of natures

untouched by humans to maintain their present conditions.

Implication. It is an implied conclusion or inference

which is indirectly stated or suggested in any course of

14L. Coupe. The Green Studies Reader: From Romanticism to

Ecocriticism. (London: Routledge,2000), p. 302.

15 F. C. Mish. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary 10th

Edition, (1996), p.388.

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study.16 Operationally, this refers to the would-be effect of

using Dr. Jose Rizal’s selected poems in teaching literature

as analyzed according to Wordsworth’s romanticism.

Jose P. Rizal. He is widely considered as one of the

greatest heroes of the Philippines, and is implied by

Philippine law to be one of the national heroes. He was the

author of the novels Noli Me Tángere and El filibusterismo,

and a number of poems and essays.17 Operationally, some of his

poems containing naturalistic themes are the subject of the

present study. He is treated in this study as a poet and a

naturalist.

Language. It is a system of arbitrary, vocal, symbols,

which is tacitly agreed upon by a group of people for the

purpose of communication. Operationally, this refers to the

course of study.

Literature. Generally written work and considered to be

the superior and lasting artistic merit of a certain culture.

It may be based on reality or imagination. Its words are

artfully arranged to stimulate feelings and impart

Loc. Cit. Contextualizing the United Nations Conventions on the

16

Rights of the Child in R. Riordans’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians,

The Lightning Thief, p. 20.

17 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jose Rizal Retrieved January 15,

2017.
 22

understanding. Operationally, it is used as an avenue in

experiencing life, enjoyment, knowledge and reflection of

Rizal’s poems.

Our Common Home. This phrase was used by Pope Francis I

in his Encyclical “Laudato Si” to refer simply to earth, to

nature and to our environment. The word also is used in this

study for the same purpose.

Persona. Conceptually it is a character assumed by an

author in a written work. Operationally, it is the speaker in

the poems of Dr. Jose Rizal.

Poem. It is a metrical composition, especially one that

is concerned with the feeling and imaginative description.18

It is operationally defined as the ten selected poems of Dr.

Jose Rizal.

Poet. It is conceptually defined as one who writes poem

and possess high powers of imagination or expression.19 It is

operationally referring to Dr. Jose Rizal.

Poetic Diction. Denotatively, these are word choices and

phrasings in a literary work. Diction may be described in

18E. J. Bologa and I. Doncillo. Nature in Robert Frost’s Poetry.

(Undergraduate Thesis, College of Arts and Communications, University of
Eastern Philippines, 2015), p.12-13.

19 Ibid. p. 13
 23

terms of various qualities, such as the degree to which it is

formal or colloquial, abstract or concrete, literal or

figurative or whether it is derived from Latin or Anglo-

Saxon.20 Operationally, it is used to describe words used by

classicist or often called as classical rhetorical figures

with whom the romanticist such as William Wordsworth, Percy

Shelley and Samuel Coleridge despised and instead used words

that are ‘used by men.’

Poetry. It is a type of discourse which achieves its

effects by rhythm, sound patterns, and imagery. Most

characteristically, the poetic form evokes emotions or

sensations.21 Operationally, this term is used as the vehicle

by which the environmental themes of Rizal is depicted.

Readings. It is a mental activity that involves

comprehension. It is an act in which the reader perceives

what is written in the printed text and draw inferences out

from it. In this study it is used connotatively to refer to

the way the poems of Jose Rizal are to be analyzed grounded

on the theory of Wordsworth.

20S. Hamilton. Essential Literary Terms: A Brief Norton Guide with

Exercises. (W.W. Norton and Company, Inc. and Peoples Education Filth
Avenue New York City, 2007), p. 68.

21 Op Cit. Nature in Robert Frost’s Poetry, p. 13.

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Reflections. Denotatively, it is an image seen in a

mirror or on a shiny surface. Moreover, it is a written note

that explains or discusses the meaning of a certain text.22

Operationally, the present study would try to create a

commentary out from the conclusion made by the researchers

regarding environmental degradation, and anything that

concerns on preservation and conservation of people’s

ecosystem.

Romanticism. It is a theory in literary criticism that

poses extreme love for the environment or nature. Romanticism

was characterized by its emphasis on emotion and

individualism as well as glorification of all the past and

nature, preferring the medieval rather than the classical. It

is an unusual interest on nature: in woods and winds, in

forest and flowers. It is a sentimental humanitarianism or

concern for fellow men especially the oppressed and the

poor.23 In this study, romanticism serves as the springboard

from which the researchers will analyze Rizal’s poetry. It is

in this way that the researchers will try to see Rizal’s

romance with nature.

22Merriam Webster’s Pocket Dictionary. New Edition.

(Massachusetts, USA, 2006) p. 290.

23 F. Javines. A Brief Study of English Literature. (Manila,

Philippines: Merriam and Webster, Inc.,1985), p. 186.

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Romanticist. Conceptually, he/she is a writer, artist,

or musician of the Romantic movement. A person who subscribes

to the artistic movement or ideas of Romanticism.

Operationally, this refers to the manner the poem is to be

analyzed in accordance with the criteria set by Wordsworth’s

romanticism.

Romanticist Readings. Rizal’s poems are seen in the

romanticist poet views and perspectives. Hence, the used of

Wordsworth’s romanticism to guide the course of the study.

Romantic Period. Conceptually, it was an artistic,

literary, musical and intellectual movement that originated

in Europe toward the end of the 18th century and in most areas

was at its peak in the approximate period from 1800 to 1850.

It was partly a reaction to the Industrial Revolution. It was

a revolt against urban sprawls and industrialization. It was

trying to heed the peasants and people to go back to their

agrarian lives. In this sense it was a return to nature.24 In

this study, it is used as a Movement that brushed away

classicism but rather put emphasis on feelings and

inspirations drew from nature.

24 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanticism Retrieved January 29,

2017.
 26

Tenets of Romanticism. Conceptually and Operationally

defined as beliefs on romanticism that shows admiration for

objects of nature, turning back to nature, spontaneous

overflow of emotions and the use of simple language.

Admiration to Nature. Conceptually and

operationally, Romantics stressed the awe of nature

in art and language and the experience of sublimity

through a connection with nature. Romantics

rejected the rationalization of nature by the

previous thinkers of the Enlightenment period.

Turning Back to Nature- Conceptually and

operationally, Romantics believed in the natural

goodness of humans which is hindered by the urban

life of civilization. They believed that the savage

is noble, childhood is good and the emotions

inspired by both beliefs causes the heart to soar.

Spontaneous Overflow of Emotions- Conceptually and

operationally, Romantics believed that knowledge is

gained through intuition rather than deduction.

This is best summed up by Wordsworth who stated

that “all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow

of powerful feelings.”
 27

Using Simple Language- Conceptually and

operationally, Romantics turned their back on worn

poetic diction and classical rhetorical figures.

Wordsworth makes his own language which is ‘set in

the standards of men,’ plain but with force and

with ‘gentle shock of mild surprise.’

Text Analysis. It is one of the techniques in literary

criticism that surfaces the author’s intention of writing, or

the implied message of the text being written.25

Operationally, it is a technique used by the researchers to

come up with an objective description of Dr. Jose Rizal’s

poetry, by reading between and beyond the lines.

Wordsworth’s Romanticism. It views poetry as the

spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings recollected in

tranquility (De la Rosa 2003: 10). The feelings therein

developed give importance to the following:

Action and situation. Conceptually and

operationally, these are incidents in common life

that is being related and described by the

romanticist poet.

25 Loc Cit. Contextualizing the United Nations Conventions on the

Rights of the Child in R.Riordans’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians,

The Lightning Thief, p.21.
 28

Feelings recollected in tranquility.

Conceptually and operationally, these are emotions

felt by the poet caused by external stimuli or

actual environment that even if one is already

detached from it and ready to rest he/she can still

remember the feelings experienced and able to write

them in poetic-lyric verses or in Wordsworth’s

words ‘the manner in which we associate ideas in a

state of excitement.’

Language Used. Conceptually and

operationally, this refers to the language which

William Wordsworth offered, to wit, “language used

by men” or by common people. Wordsworth shrugged at

the thought of using the classical “poetic diction”

and instead used language which is unadorned and

simple.

The following are the “language used” to be

encountered in this study:

Conversational. Conceptually it is a talk

involving two people. Operationally, this occur in

the study when the poet talks to another person or

inanimate object.
 29

Colloquial. Conceptually, it is an informal

way of talking. Operationally, this refers when the

speaker talks informally even if there is no human

beings or inanimate object.

Everyday. Denotatively, used routinely or

typically. Operationally, this refers to the words

of the speaker perceived to be used habitually.

Plain. Denotatively and operationally, words

that are easy to be understood.

Figurative. Denotatively, are words or lines

which meanings are different from the basic meaning

and that expresses an idea interestingly.

Operationally, this is used when the speaker refers

to something else and uses his environment to

streamline his ideas and thoughts.

Direct. Denotatively and operationally, this

refers to direct calling of someone’s attention,

thoughts, emotions or ideas.

Ordinary. Denotatively and operationally

defined as normal or usual.

Similitude in Dissimilitude. Conceptually and

operationally, these are the metaphors and figures

 30

of speech that the author utilized in creating a

poem ‘to throw a certain coloring of imagination,

whereby ordinary things be presented in the mind in

an unusual manner.’

The following are the metaphors:

Simile. Denotatively and operationally is

figure of thought in which one kind of thing is

compared to a markedly different objects; the

comparison is signaled by the use of like, as , and

as of.

Assonance. Denotatively and Operationally it

is defined as the repetition of identical or

similar vowel sounds in nearby words or stressed

syllables.

Hyperbole. Denotatively and operationally is

a trope which is a point is stated in a way that is

greatly exaggerated.

Metaphor. Denotatively and operationally is a

figure of thought in which an object, expression or

ideas are directly compare.

Personification. Denotatively and

operationally is a figure of thought in which an

 31

abstract concept, an animal, or an inanimate object

is treated as though it were alive ot had human

attributes.

Polysedenton. Denotatively and Operationally

defined as conjucntions for rhetorical effect.

Moreover, the terms defined above served as the core

components of Wordsworth’s romanticism theory by which

Rizal’s poetry pieces will be analyzed especially those that

speak of nature.
 32

Chapter II

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

“In the Romantic Period, poetry was no longer

used to make complex arguments in a witty, polished
style. Romantic poets used unadorned language to
explore the significance of commonplace subjects,
the beauty of nature and the power of human
imagination.”
-Elements of Literature

Related Literature
On Tenets of Romanticism

People most often misconstrue the meaning of romance in

literature. Today, the word romantic is often a branded label

used to describe sentimental writing, particularly those

best-selling “romances” about love- a subject that many

people mistakenly think the Romantic poets and writers

popularized.26 Oftentimes, romanticism is associated

immediately to love. But at first for enlightenment, the term

romance used in this study has nothing to do with the commonly

considered romantic.

Historically, Romance in the earlier years meant a

language or dialect derived from the Roman, that is, Latin

26 Loc. Cit. Romanticism, p.634.

 33

language. Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, and Rumanian

were romance languages27.

During the time when England passed through the Dark

Ages which was characterized by poverty, drought and plague,

tales about chivalric romance and heroic prose and poetry

flourished. It was a made up fantastic stories of adventures

of heroic knight, which generally have a theme about courtly

love. Thus, the word romance became and commonly associated

with love. Yet not only with love, it was also associated

with the fantastic, the original, the melancholy, the

unusual, the distant past, the distant future, the far places,

the fanciful, the free, the unreachable, the moon, the stars

but most of all, love.28

In the beginning of Nineteenth century, romanticism

soared in England. Whereas the term “romantic” currently

refers to love, the romantic era was characterized by primacy

of individual’s thoughts which is rooted from early

revolutions in Europe. Furthermore, romantic era emphasized

personal feelings and abhorrence of what is considered

classical form of writing. Hence, works of writers in this

period showed a sense of delight, sensibility to nature and

Loc. Cit. Wordsworth Green-field Sacramentalism: An

27

Ecocriticism, p. 25.

28 Loc. Cit. A Brief Study of English Literature, p. 185.

 34

the beauty that surrounds them. A deep empathy with obscure,

humble, or underprivileged people, and a vivid imagination

that constructed fantastic dream worlds manifested in the

works of writers in the romantic era.29

The romantic period stemmed from three different

reactions. First, romantics set themselves in opposition to

the order and rationality of classical and neo-classical

artistic precepts. Consequently, the engenderment of romantic

philosophy- the desire to be free from convention and tyranny;

The new emphasis is on the rights and dignity of individual.30

Second, the romantic period has an immediacy which the

classical ones tend to lack. Romanticism was partly a reaction

against urban sprawl, industrialization. It coincides when

Great Britain industrialized itself. Factories sprang up in

towns and cities across the country, and the agrarian lives

of people that had been known for centuries are taken for

granted.31 Hence, the romanticism calls for people to return

to their simple, agrarian lives. And, it also encouraged

people to appreciate the beauty of nature. Lastly, Romantic

29 L. M. Ribo et.al. Language in Literature: Anglo- American

Literature. (Quezon City: Philippines,2010), p. 67.

30http://www.lyceum.org.edu./~jenglish/Courses/Spring2001/040/pre
face1802.html. Retrieved January 20, 2017.

31 Duncan. Wu. Romanticism: An Anthology,4th edition. (Ho Printing

Singapore Pte. Ltd.,2012), p. 23.

 35

era was characterized by an emphasis on individual’s

thoughts, which stemmed from a rebellion to tyrannical

authority inspired by the French and American Revolutions.32

The term Romantic relates to being fascinated with youth

and innocence, to question authority and tradition for

idealistic purposes, and to develop an awareness of adapting

to change. Moreover, romanticism is generally based upon on

a faith in the value of the unseen and the ability of the

human beings to discover and express hidden truth by the use

of imagination, emotion, and inspiration. Great art, by the

romantic view, was the expression, in new, appropriate

language, of the basic moral and aesthetic truths that would

bring happiness to human beings.33

Romantic poets thought of nature as transformative: they

were fascinated by the ways nature and the human mind

“mirrored” the others creative properties. The feeling

therein developed gives importance to the action and

situation, not action and situation to the feelings.34 Nature

for romanticist poets is a very essential element to produce

a robust and magnificent masterpiece of poetry. The idea of

32 Op Cit. Language in Literature: Anglo-American Literature, p.

67.

33 Loc. Cit. Romanticism, p. 630-631.

34 Loc. Cit. Teaching Guide in Literary Criticism, p. 10.

 36

sublime is of vital importance for the romanticist poet. It

has been constantly discussed as the ‘strongest emotion the

mind is capable of feeling.’ The sublime is related to the

concepts of vastness, infinity, astonishment, when for

instance we are contemplating nature and its elements of

natural and supernatural (enrage sea, immense mountains,

beautiful flowers and the likes).35

Samuel Coleridge exhorted his thoughts on this matter in

a beautiful way:

“Not the poem we have read, but that to

which we return, with the greatest pleasure,
possess the genuine power, and claims the name
of essential poetry.36”

Nature has its ways in healing people from the hustle-

bustle of the world. Nature gives solace and refreshment to

people in times of grief, desolation and stress. Matthew

Arnold as cited by Ladeño (2012) located Wordsworth’s healing

effect in power:

“The extraordinary power with which Wordsworth

feels the joy offered in nature, the joy
offered in the simple primary affections and
duties… and renders it so as to make a share
of it.”

35http://www.english.upenn.edu/~jenglish/Courses/Spring2001/040/pr

eface1802.html. Retrieved January 20, 2017.

36 Loc. Cit. Romanticism, p. 632.

 37

Like Tolstoy in his finest, like the great sages of

Judaic and some aspects of Christian Tradition, Wordsworth

hallows the commonplace, celebrates the common, human heart,

and the nature that cares for and refreshes that heart.37

Romanticist poet contemplated the mesmerizing creation

of God and gradually developed a feeling of sensitivity and

oneness with the universe. Hence, they look at the mountain,

lakes and trees, and made them the subject of their

interpretation and inspiration. Perceptively, they did so to

counterattack the aristocratic, social, and political norms

of the Age of Enlightenment, and the scientific

rationalization of nature (it was mostly embodied in visual

arts, music, and literature but have a major impact on

historiography, education, and natural sciences).38

To contend this prevalent ideology of reducing the

majesty of nature and its scenic beauty to scientific

rationalization and principle, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron,

Shelley, and others proposed a new way of seeing things in

37 H. Bloom. The Best Poems of the English Language

from Chaucer to Robert Frost. (First Harper Perennial Ed. Harper Collins,
New York, N.Y., 2007), p. 324.

38
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanticism Retrieved January 29,
2017.
 38

the surroundings. Wordsworth, among others, was intent on

transforming the place of poetry in society; from a

specialized, agreeable, but not from a high-ranking pursuit

and taste; it was to be given sherry, as Wordsworth scornfully

puts it. More so, they combated the art that conforms to

logic, order, balance, propriety, reason, and mastery of the

emotions; these are the salient characteristics of neo-

classicism as a result of French classicism in eighteenth

century. Hence, the romantic poets set out, through their

poems, to reveal to men and women a new kind of poetry. It

was the kind of poetry that is exploring the external nature

with ever-increasing delicacy. A poetry that unify the human

beings to his/her environment. A poetry that delves with the

beauty of nature expressed through analogies in the poem

culled from experiences and emotions mustered by the poet.

By this, Wordsworth extoled in his Preface to Lyrical

Ballads the object of poet’s thoughts:

“In spite of difference of soil and

climate, of language and manners, of laws and
customs, in spite of things silently gone out
of mind and things violently destroyed, the
Poet binds together by passion and knowledge
the vast empire of human society, as it is
spread over the whole earth, and over all
time. The objects of the Poet’s thoughts are
everywhere; though the eyes and senses of man
are, it is true, his favorite guides, yet he
will follow wheresoever he can find an
atmosphere of sensation in which to move his
 39

wings. Poetry is the first and last of all

knowledge—it is as immortal as the heart of
man.”

Noticeably, poems created during the romantic period

presents imaginative experiences in a very powerful, moving,

and artistic manner. This is because romantic poets saw the

power of imagination, aside for being a vital faculty of mind,

as a kind of desire and motivation that drives the mind to

learn and know things that cannot be learned in a rational

manner. Each of the romantic poet had his own special view of

the creative power of imagination and of the ways in which

the human mind is adapted to nature.

As Wordsworth beautifully puts it in his Preface to

Lyrical Ballads:

“…considers man and nature as essentially

adapted to each other, and the mind of man as
a naturally a mirror of the fairest and most
interesting properties of nature.”

Romantic literature has many themes of romanticism that

are contrary to the thoughts, ideologies and beliefs of the

previous movement of rationalism. As the philosophers put it,

romantics were concerned more with the importance of the heart

and all things creative rather than the mind.

 40

By about the middle of the nineteenth century

Romanticism began to give way to new literary movements.

Wordsworth’s Romanticism

William Wordsworth was born in Cockermouth in

Cumberland. His sister, the poet and diarist Dorothy

Wordsworth, to whom he was close all his life was born one

year later. After the death of their mother in 1778, she and

William did not meet again for another nine years. In 1783

their father died. Wordsworth made his debut as a writer in

1787 when he published a sonnet in The European Magazine.

That same year he began attending St John's College,

Cambridge. He received his BA degree in 1791. He returned to

Hawkshead for the first two summers of his time at Cambridge,

and often spent later holidays on walking tours, visiting

places famous for the beauty of their landscape.39 Clearly,

in this passage, Wordsworth showed extraordinary love for

nature.

According to his mother, Wordsworth was, as a boy,

‘stiff, moody, and of violent temper’.40 The calmness of his

ambiance makes his poetry emerged superb, robust and made his

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William Wordsworth Retrieved

39

January 15, 2017.

40 Loc. Cit. Wordsworth Green-field Sacramentalism: An

Ecocriticism, p. 31.
 41

political views to steady. After many years of unsettlement,

in 1795 he received a legacy of 900 pounds from Raisley

Calvert and became able to pursue a career as a poet.

William Wordsworth stipulated his theory of romanticism

on his prominent Preface to Lyrical Ballads which was first

published in 1798 followed in 1800. The volumes published

gave neither Wordsworth’s nor Coleridge’s name as author; but

on 1802 it included a preface where Wordsworth discussed the

elements of a new type of verse, one that is based in “real

language of men” and avoids the “poetic diction”. He further

discussed in this book the definition of poetry as

“spontaneous overflow of feelings; recollected in

tranquility.” The fourth and final edition of Lyrical Ballads

was published in 1805.41

On Action and Situation

Wordsworth’s romanticism sought to move the minds of

people to gaze around the charming beauty of nature and urge

them to turn away from industrialization through creative

power of imagination enshrined in his poetry. Moreover,

although the mind is naturally a “mirror” of nature, as

41http://www.english.upenn.edu/~jenglish/Courses/Spring2001/040/pr

eface1802.html. Retrieved January 20, 2017.

 42

Wordsworth thought, the imagination actually moves the mind

in mysterious ways to imitate (without being sacrilegious)

the power of its Creator. The purpose of this imagination is

to create new realities in the mind and (as a result) in

poetry.42

The principal object of Wordsworth’s theory of

romanticism is about incidents or situations from common

life, and to relate them throughout in the language used by

men. The feelings therein developed gives importance to the

action and situation, not the action and situation to the

feelings. Thus, romanticism believes that poetry represents

nature of reality.43 Believing that any piece of text will

become savory when associated with ideas mixed with

excitement drawn from personal experience or encounter in

certain entity or from nature. Wordsworth’s romanticism is

chiefly, low, rustic, and plain living because ‘the essential

passions of the heart find a better soil in which they can

attain maturity and less under restraint.’ Furthermore,

Wordsworth’s romanticism form is often a lyric that lends

itself to spontaneity, immediacy, a quick burst of emotion,

and self-revelation. It focused more on rural life instead of

42 Loc. cit. Romanticism, p.633.

43 Loc. Cit. Wordsworth Greenfieled Sacramentalism: An

Ecocriticism, p. 4.
 43

city life, because in the countryside “the passions of men

are incorporated with beautiful and permanent forms of

nature”.44

On Feelings Recollected in Tranquility

Wordsworth found hope in certain inherent and

indestructible qualities of the human mind, and likewise…

certain powers in the great and permanent objects that act

upon it, which are equally inherent and indestructible.45 It

is in the romanticism that an object is seen as it is and

when contemplated deeply in silence could create a vast pool

of ideas that leads to creation of poems. This is so because

attraction to the object seen is augmented when further

reminisce in tranquility and loneness.

Poetry must speak plainly but forcibly communicated for

the reader to understand accurately the text. Wordsworth’s

romanticism depicts: early childhood experiences, manners of

rural life and occupation and self-absorbed love for nature.

His romanticism is imitative and affective. Imitative as its

emulate the creative properties of nature and affective as it

44 Ibid.

45 Ibid.
 44

deals with the rising out of repeated experience and regular

feelings and notions in simple and unembellished expressions.

Wordsworth theory suggests that even if one is already

detached from the external stimuli that gives delight and

giddiness to him/her he/she can still vividly reminisce the

feelings and be able to describe the ideas in a ‘simple and

unelaborated expression.’ It also suggests that habits of

meditation or in Wordsworth’s jargon “recollection in

tranquility’, if the feelings formed drawn from external

environment is still vibrantly palpable, the more the writer

can write ‘as such objects strongly excite those feelings’

and feelings carry along the purpose or intention of the

writer or poet.

In expressing delight, Wordsworth further explained his

poetry style, that is, feelings recollected in tranquility in

his famous Preface to Lyrical Ballad, as follows:

“I have said that poetry is the

spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it
takes its origin from emotion recollected in
tranquility: the emotion is contemplated till,
by a species of reaction, the tranquility
gradually disappears, and an emotion, kindred
to that which was before the subject of
contemplation, is gradually produced, and does
itself actually exist in the mind. In this
mood successful composition generally begins,
and in a mood similar to this it is carried
on; but the emotion, of whatever kind, and in
whatever degree, from various causes, is
 45

qualified by various pleasures, so that in

describing any passions whatsoever, which are
voluntarily described, the mind will, upon the
whole, be in a state of enjoyment. If Nature
be thus cautious to preserve in a state of
enjoyment a being so employed, the Poet ought
to profit by the lesson held forth to him, and
ought specially to take care, that, whatever
passions he communicates to his Reader, those
passions, if his Reader’s mind be sound and
vigorous, should always be accompanied with an
overbalance of pleasure.46”

On Language Used by Men

Wordsworth in his unconventional and unconformity form

of writing from traditional eradicated the ‘poetic diction’-

a language, generally, used by those in ‘rank’ and different

from the diction used by English commoners. Wordsworth’s

language used is often plain, conversational and simple. His

poetry is least under influence of social vanity hence the

emotions, experiences, feelings, and notions contained by his

poems are expressed in a simple and unelaborated manner making

it easy to be understood by commoners.

Wordsworth believed that an unembellished language

arising out from repeated experiences and regular feelings,

is a more permanent, and a far more than philosophical

language. He further asserted that a poetry is in ‘good sense’

46http://www.harvardclassics.edu/~jenglish/Courses/Spring2001/040/

1802.html. Retrieved January 20, 2017.

 46

when the ideas expressed in language is fitted to their

respective importance. Wordsworth remarked on the use of

language in his Preface to Lyrical Ballads as follows:

“The principal object, then, proposed in

these Poems was to choose incidents and
situations from common life, and to relate or
describe them, throughout, as far as was
possible in a selection of language really
used by men, and, at the same time, to throw
over them a certain colouring of imagination,
whereby ordinary things should be presented to
the mind in an unusual aspect; and, further,
and above all, to make these incidents and
situations interesting by tracing in them,
truly though not ostentatiously, the primary
laws of our nature: chiefly, as far as regards
the manner in which we associate ideas in a
state of excitement. Humble and rustic life
was generally chosen, because, in that
condition, the essential passions of the heart
find a better soil in which they can attain
their maturity, are less under restraint, and
speak a plainer and more emphatic language;
because in that condition of life our
elementary feelings coexist in a state of
greater simplicity, and, consequently, may be
more accurately contemplated, and more
forcibly communicated; because the manners of
rural life germinate from those elementary
feelings, and, from the necessary character of
rural occupations, are more easily
comprehended, and are more durable; and,
lastly, because in that condition the passions
of men are incorporated with the beautiful and
permanent forms of nature.47”

47 Ibid.
 47

On Similitude in Dissimilitude

Wordsworth’s poems incorporated painting of imagination

whereby the ordinary, simple things be presented in a very

unusual manner and further makes these experiences or

incidents interesting. Furthermore, he said that passages in

the poems should enmesh metaphors and figures of speech for

the reader to have a varied spate of feelings. He believed

that the human mind is capable of being excited without the

application of gross and violent stimulants, hence, he

offered that poet should style their poems with figures of

speech to stir the imagination of the reader and to engross

the mind into a meaningful experience resulting to create a

rationalization. Taken from his famous Preface to Lyrical

Ballads, in his own words he further explained the system of

similitude in dissimilitude:

“If I had undertaken a SYSTEMATIC defense

of the theory here maintained, it would have
been my duty to develop the various causes
upon which the pleasure received from metrical
language depends. Among the chief of these
causes is to be reckoned a principle which
must be well known to those who have made any
of the Arts the object of accurate reflection;
namely, the pleasure which the mind derives
from the perception of similitude in
dissimilitude. This principle is the great
spring of the activity of our minds, and their
chief feeder. From this principle the
direction of the sexual appetite, and all the
passions connected with it, take their origin:
it is the life of our ordinary conversation;
 48

and upon the accuracy with which similitude in

dissimilitude, and dissimilitude in
similitude are perceived, depend our taste and
our moral feelings. It would not be a useless
employment to apply this principle to the
consideration of meter, and to show that meter
is hence enabled to afford much pleasure, and
to point out in what manner that pleasure is
produced. But my limits will not permit me to
enter upon this subject, and I must content
myself with a general summary.48”

On the Preservation and Conservation of our Common Home

One period in history that changed the views and

perspectives of poetry in the world is the Romantic Era.

Romantic period or romanticism, on which most of the poet and

writers were intent in eradicating a society that conformed

to classicism catered novel ways in seeing things around us.

It advocated new aesthetic categories of the sublimity and

beauty of nature. In addition, it was a literary and

intellectual style flourished in the Western world and was

generally based upon on a faith in the ability of the human

beings to express hidden truth by the use of imagination,

emotion and inspiration. Romanticism, furthermore, put

emphasis on emotions and individualism as well as

glorification of the past and awe in the beauty of nature.

48 Ibid.
 49

Accordingly, one of the best well-known poets of this

era was William Wordsworth. Wordsworth’s poetry showed

extreme adoration to nature and called for preserving the

people’s common home as it coincides at the moment when

Britain industrialized itself. Moreover, Wordsworth’s

romanticism views poetry as ‘spontaneous overflow of emotions

recollected in tranquility.’ Thus, romanticism believes that

poetry should be simple, natural, unadorned language and most

of all, should ‘represents the nature of reality.’

There is right timing here in this present study. In

this present age where people no longer regard our mother

nature this study, in its little way, would again herald to

revere nature wonders and call for people to get away from

lifestyles that caused environmental degradation. Today,

undeniably, people tend to start embracing the throwaway

culture. They have forgotten that they themselves are from

dust of this earth; the meat of their body is molded out from

the clay of this earth, the air they breathe, the life and

the refreshment from the waters, all comes from this planet

they are living. Hence, this is now the time to reflect to

the wrong done against nature; the earth today is burdened

 50

and laid waste and is among of those abused, abandoned and

maltreated.49 Thus, people must take action.

Pope Francis I in his encyclical titled “Laudato Si”

critiqued consumerism and irresponsible development, laments

environmental degradation and global warming, and calls all

people of the world to take ‘swift and unified global

action’.50

Most environmental disasters don’t happen overnight.

They are incremental, indeed. If solutions are sought to these

problems, then everyone must work to restore the beauty and

magnificence of nature. If people will continue to work

towards advancement without considering the environmental

concerns, what will happen to our surroundings.51

These present ecological crises we felt and observed are

no big joke. The effects of eco-catastrophe, such as flooding

and desertification are not anymore a distant threat. This is

now the time to re-examine the fragility of the planet and

nature, and its connection and relationship to people. People

49Encyclical Letter Laudato Si (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, May

24, 2015), p. 1.

50 Jim Yardley; Goodstein, Laurie (18 June 2015).

http://www.Nytimes.com/15/06/09/world/Europe/Pope-Francis-in-Sweeping-
Encyclical-Calls-for-Swift-Action-on-Climate-Change.html. Retrieved
January 18, 2017.

51 N. Remedios, et. al. Rainbows in Communication. (Vibal

Publishing Quezon city Gregorio Araneta Avenue, 2007), p. 126.

 51

once and for all must take responsibility to the damage they

have done against the mother nature.

According to Pope Francis I encyclical, pollution and

climate change have become part of people’s daily experience.

Atmospheric pollutants produce a broad spectrum of health

hazards and have caused millions of premature deaths. Each

year tons of garbage and toxic waste are generated.

The earth is people’s home, shelter, sister and mother

who embraces them even if it hurts. Sadly, people have come

to the point where they set themselves as the masters entitled

to plunder the goods with which God has endowed to the planet.

In fact, people, as the Bible says, are the steward of God’s

creation but ironically, they become the lords of it instead.

People have only one home, one mother with whom they

share their lives. Protect and conserve her (Mother Earth)

for the posterity.

Together with St. Francis of Assisi, people ought to

praise her saying:

“Praise be to you, my Lords, through our

Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and governs
us, and who produces various fruit with
colored flowers and herbs (Canticle of
Creatures 1999: 113-114).”
 52

Related Studies

On Romanticism

In the study of Bologa and Doncillo (2015) titled “Nature

in Robert Frost’s poetry”, which aimed to analyze the poem of

Robert Frosts using Shih-Yen-Chih romanticism asserted that

romanticism are feelings and emotions expressed by the lines

focused more on giving one’s heart solace which pertains to

its beauty. Furthermore, they stated that in the eternal

battle between feelings and rationality, romanticism gave

priority to sensitivity over logic to images over pure

ideas.52 However, romanticism was preceded by a long period

of preparation: it was not borne out of the crises that made

its development easy. Thus, it had been waiting for some time

to blossom.

In the study made by Saga Sigurðardóttir (2016) titled

“Romanticism in Two Countries: A Comparison of its Effect on

Literature, Culture and Politics in Iceland and England”

stated that romanticism had a significant impact on literary

history and its effects can still be felt in current

literature. It shares some common themes such as style, a

focus on the imagination, the connection between the

individual and nature, and the importance of symbols,

52 Loc. Cit. Nature in Robert Frost’s Poetry, p. 30.

 53

figurative language, and myths. However, throughout Western

Europe the impact of Romanticism differed from place to place

as each nation interpreted this literary movement in its own

way. Therefore, the best approach to define romanticism is

from the standpoint of each specific nation, through looking

at how each nation constructed its own version of the

movement, and how the movement in turn affected the nation’s

history, culture and literature.53

Felix Ladeño (2012) study titled “Wordsworth Green-field

Sacramentalism: An Ecocriticism” which touched on beliefs of

Romanticism and environmental concerns found in Wordsworth’s

poetry. He proclaimed that nature is not just portrayed in

romantic art or literature, but it is also portrayed in a

romantic way. The emphasis is on the pure, simple beauty of

nature.54 Hence, we must preserve our nature and heed

Wordsworth’s poetry advice and messages. Benazon (1975) as

cited by Ladeño, termed romance as a type of prose fiction

which draws on non-realistic materials and which introduces

situations that are products of the imagination. Ladeño,

53 S. Sigurðardóttir. Romanticism in Two Countries: A Comparison of

its Effect on Literature, Culture and Politics in Iceland and England,

(Master’s Thesis on Literature, Leiðbeinandi: Julian Meldon D‘Arcy,
2016), http://www.languageininceland.com/may2016.pdf thesis in iceland.

54 Loc. Cit. Wordsworth Green-field Sacramentalism: An

Ecocriticism, p. 45.
 54

further stated that romanticism is the nature of both a spirit

and a method in art and literature, as contrasted to

classicism, it means the introduction of the artist’s hopes

and ideals, his personality, into his work, and the attempt

to suggest more that can be definitely expressed.

On Wordsworth’s Romanticism

The study of Margaret Jane, faculty of University of

Louisville, (1916) titled “The attitude of the Romantic poets

towards nature” attempted to portray the different roles that

nature has played in the poetry of Wordsworth, Coleridge,

Shelley, Keats and Byron. The study result shows that

Wordsworth’s approach to nature is more personal, intimate

and perfect in its way. She asserted that nature has been

truly called a "maker of poets" without nature there would be

no nature-savvy poet like Wordsworth and Coleridge. She even

said that one characteristic that can be found in Wordsworth

is poetic imagination which she claimed not present to others

as they’ve different approaches and methods in forming their

poetry. However, in her study it surfaced that all the poets’

inspiration in the romantic period came mostly from their

external environment.
 55

Roxanne Laodenio and Myla Jepollo, (2013) in their study

titled “The Supremacy of the Author: Concepts of Wordsworth

and Coleridge’s Friendship Reflected in their Poems”, that

deals to the strong bonds of friendship built upon 33 years

of collaboration proved to be profound and intense. Hence,

the development and discovery of the Romantic period was

attributed partly due to their extensive contribution.55

Furthermore, their study asserted that Wordsworth’s

romanticism is very much grounded on his closeness to nature

and God, to natural instincts, pleasure brought about by the

nature and the ‘truth that can be found in the true standards

of men.’ Moreover, they affirmed that authors construct and

create their poetry and identity based on their experiences

and involvements. They also give advice that in critiquing

Wordsworth’s romanticism in poetry one should begin to

determine first what might have been the author’s intention

because the origins of the authors’ ideas and thoughts reveal

the real nature of the object and then afterwards judge the

poem as a whole.

Serrano and Lapid in their book “English Communication

Arts and Skills: Through British, American and Philippine

55R. Laodenio and M. Jepollo. The Supremacy of the Author: Concepts

of Wordsworth and Coleridge’s Friendship Reflected in their Poems.
(Unpublished Undergraduate Thesis, College of Arts and Communication,
University of Eastern Philippines, 2013), p. 30.
 56

Literature” noticed three things on Wordsworth: First, he

loved to be alone and was never lonely when with nature;

Second, he felt the presence of some living spirit in nature,

real though unseen, companionable though silent; Lastly, the

impressions he recorded in his poems are similar to our own

and are delightfully familiar. 56

Carlson (2006), as cited by Ladeño, analyzed how

Wordsworth turned his back on worn poetic diction and

classical rhetorical figures. He further said that (he) makes

his own language which is ‘set in the standards of men,’ plain

but with force and with ‘gentle shock of mild surprise.’

Ladeño (2012) in his study on Wordsworth’s

Sacramentalism echoed that Wordsworth abandons the aesthetic

formalism of the picturesque and sanctifies transcendent

self-conscious, but this transcendence still depends on trips

through the countryside and on Wordsworth’s poetry. Moreover,

he said that he (Wordsworth) hope to direct the journeys and

modes of seeing and supervising cultural education, reworking

the intellectual meanings of the individual, leisure, and the

land itself.57

56J. B. Serrano and M. Lapid. English Communication Arts and Skills:

Through British, American and Philippine Literature A situational,
developmental, interdisciplinary approach. (Quezon City, Philippines:
Phoenix Publishing House,1998) p. 124-125.
 57

Similarities and Differences between the Present Study and

those Reviewed

The study is similar with that of Bologa and Doncillo

(2015) because they use romanticism as their core theory in

analyzing literary text. This study is different to that of

them because they utilized Shih-Yeh-Chi romanticism in

analyzing Robert Frost poetry while this study use

Wordsworth’s romanticism as a guide in analyzing Dr. Jose

Rizal’s poetry pieces.

Laodenio and Jepollo’s study (2014) is similar to the

present study since they used romanticism to determine

Wordsworth and Coleridge friendship that leads to the

foundation of Wordsworth’s romanticism. They are different

because the authors’ focal point of research is the Supremacy

of their Friendship. Moreover, they also incorporated

Romantic Expressive theory as the guide of their study, in

contrast, this research will use Wordsworth’s signpost as

lead questions to the analysis of Rizal’s poetry.

The study of Margaret Jane, faculty of University of

Louisville, (1916) is similar to this because she determined

the position of nature to that of Wordsworth’s romanticism.

57 Loc. Cit. Wordsworth Green-field Sacramentalism: An

Ecocriticism, p. 40.
 58

They are different because this study concerned the love of

nature portrayed by Jose Rizal in his poems and not of

Wordsworth and other known famous poet of romantic period.

In the study made by Saga Sigurðardóttir (2016) it is

similar to this because he studied and compared Iceland and

England using the theory of Romanticism. In contrast to this

study, his research focused more on the developments and

effects of theory of Romanticism to England and Iceland

Literature, Culture and Politics while this study employed

Theory of Romanticism, specifically of Wordsworth, as a guide

throughout the study.

The study conducted by Felix Ladeño (2012) is similar to

this study because he incorporated Wordsworth’s romanticism

as his core theory in analyzing Wordsworth’s poetry in line

with nature to produce a reflection on the present

environmental crises and call for environmentalism. It is

different because this study subjected the poems of Dr. Jose

Rizal for analyzation to determine the tenets of romanticism

found in his poetry and to draw implications towards teaching

literature. Furthermore, this study did not incorporate the

theory of ecocriticism which is one of the core theories he

used in his study.

 59

Chapter III

METHODOLOGY

… What we have loved,

Others will love, and we will teach them how,
Instruct them how the mind of man becomes
A thousand times more beautiful than the earth
On which he dwells, above this frame of things
(Which, ‘mid all revolution in the hopes
And fears of men, doth still remain unchanged)
In beauty exalted, as it is itself
Of quality and fabric more divine.

-William Wordsworth, from the Prelude

Background of the Author

Dr. José Protasio Rizal Mercado (y) Alonso is a unique

example of a many-splendored genius who became the greatest

hero of the nation. Endowed by God versatile gifts he truly

ranked with the world geniuses. He was an ophthalmic surgeon,

poet, dramatist, essayist, linguist, naturalist, grammarian,

philosopher, humorist and educator. Beyond of all of these

titles he was a hero and a political martyr who consecrated

his life for the redemption of his country and the oppressed

people.58

Jose Rizal was born on the moonlit night of Wednesday,

June 19, 1861, in the Lakeshore town of Calamba, Laguna

58 G. Zaide and S. M. Zaide. Jose Rizal: Life, Works, and Writing

of a Genius, Writer, Scientist, and National Hero. 2nd Edition. (Quezon
City, Philippines; All-Nations Publishing Co., Inc. Lexicon Press, 1994),
p. 1.
 60

Province, Philippines. He was the seventh of the eleventh

children of Francisco Mercado Rizal and Teodora Alonzo

Realonda. His Father, studies Latin and Philosophy at the

College of San Jose in Manila. His father was a hardy and

independent man who talked less and worked more, and was

strong in body and valiant in spirit. He died in Manila on

January 5, 1898, at the age of 80. In his student memoirs,

Rizal affectionately called him “a model of the fathers.59”

The Rizal’s home, as described by Dr. Rafael Palma- one

of Rizal’s distinguished biographers, was high and even

sumptuous with sliding shell windows. Thick walls of lime and

stone bounded the first floor; the second floor was made

entirely of wood except for the roof, which was of red tile.

Behind the house were the poultry yard full of turkeys and

chickens and a big garden of tropical fruit trees- atis,

balimbing, chico, macopa, papaya, santol, and tampoy. It was

a happy home where parental affection and children’s laughter

reigned. By day, it hummed with noises of children at play

and songs of the birds in the garden. By night, it echoed

with the dulcet notes of family prayers. The Rizal Family

belonged to the principalia, a town aristocracy in Spanish

59 Ibid.
 61

Philippines. It was one of the distinguished families in

Calamba.60”

His natal town Calamba, so named after a big native jar,

was a fitting cradle for a hero. Its scenic beauties and its

industrious, hospitable, and friendly folks impressed him

during his childhood years and profoundly affected his mind

and character. The happiest period of Rizal’s life was spent

in his lakeshore town. In his boyhood memoirs he narrated

that at the age of three he watched the garden cottage, the

culianan, the maya, the maria capra, the martin, the pipit

and other birds he listened ‘with wonder and joy’ to their

twilight songs.61”

He was a Filipino nationalist and polymath during the

tail end of the Spanish colonial period of the Philippines.

An ophthalmologist by profession, Rizal became a writer and

a key member of the Filipino Propaganda Movement which

advocated political reforms for the colony under Spain.

He was executed by the Spanish colonial government for

the crime of rebellion after an anti-colonial revolution,

inspired in part by his writings, broke out. Though he was

not actively involved in its planning or conduct, he

60 Ibid. p. 6-8.

61 Ibid. p. 11.
 62

ultimately approved of its goals which eventually led to

Philippine independence. He is widely considered one of the

greatest heroes of the Philippines, and is implied by

Philippine law to be one of the national heroes. He was the

author of the novels Noli Me Tángere and El filibusterismo,

and a number of poems and essays.62

To tout his laurels, Teofilo Tuazon best described Jose

Rizal saying:

“No man of letters has ever lived more

beautifully, thought more nobly, and suffered more
deeply than Jose Rizal.”

Rizal’s Poetry

Rizal wrote mostly in Spanish, the lingua franca of

the Spanish Philippines, though some of his letters (for

example Sa Mga Kababaihang Taga Malolos) were written in

Tagalog. His works have since been translated into a number

of languages including Tagalog and English.63

Indeed, Rizal is a literary giant. His contribution to

the world of literature is ad infinitum. He is a celebrated

writer and poet even during his time until now.

62 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jose Rizal Retrieved January 15,

2017.

63 Ibid.
 63

Rizal’s poetry is mostly written in Spanish and a

drizzling in Filipino. Due to the environmentalism and

delight portrayed by Rizal’s poems, fortunately, almost all

of it had been translated to English. These translators who

diligently did the rendition were: Charles E. Derbyshire,

Austin Craig, Frank C. Laubach, Alfredo Gonzalez, F. M de

Rivas, Nick Joaquin, Leon Guerero, and Alfredo Veloso. These

are people who labored to render the poems in their English

and Filipino version so that today we savor the essence of

it.

His poem “Flowers among Flowers” (Flor Entre Flores) is

originally written in Spanish. It is an incomplete madrigal

inspired by a precious young girl. This poem is a 48-lined

verse which talks about romance centered in the alluring

beauty the poet's object of affection. Rizal indicated in

this poem that this girl is a flower among flowers that stands

out with her soft bud which brings joy to all she meets. It

seen in the poem that this girl manifests that life without

sorrow is possible with her as mentioned as rose with no

thorns.

Rizal conducted his school at his home in Talisay, near

Dapitan, where he had his farm and hospital. His favourite

rendezvous with his boys was under a Talisay tree, after which
 64

the place was named. In honor of Talisay, he wrote a poem

titled (Himno A Talisay) “Hymn to Talisay” for his pupils to

sing.64

In Calamba, where he was born, a town ‘nestling on a

verdant plain covered with irrigated rice fields and sugar-

lands.’ Our sensitive patriot was deeply impressed to the

picturesque of the town somnolent mountain and emerald lakes.

That, during his early childhood, he likes to contemplate the

emerald waters beneath the canopy of azure skies, and later

back home write a poem about the feelings he experienced.

Rizal loved Calamba with all his heart. With nostalgic

feelings, accordingly, he wrote “In Memory of My Town” (Un

Recuerdo a Mi Pueblo) where he praised the beautiful town,

Calamba.

In February, 1895, Doña Teodora, with her eyesight fully

restored, returned to Manila. During her long stay in Dapitan,

she saw how busy her talented son was and regretted that he

had neglected the Muses. She requested him to write poetry

again. In response to her request, Rizal wrote a beautiful

poem about his serene life as an exile in Dapitan and sent it

to her on October 22, 1895. This poem was “My Retreat” (Mi

64 F. C. Laubach. Rizal, Man and Martyr. (Community Publishers,

1936), p.286-287.
 65

Ritero), which is acclaimed by literary critics as one of the

best ever penned by Rizal.65

“To the Flowers of Heidelberg” (A Las Flores de

Heidelberg). In the spring of 1886, Rizal was fascinated by

the blooming flowers along the cool banks of the Nekar River.

Among them was his favorite flower- the light blue “forget-

me-not”.66

Jose Rizal had a soul of a genuine artist. Rather an

introvert child, with a skinny physique and sad dark eyes, he

found great joy looking at the blooming flowers, the ripening

fruits, the dancing waves of the lake, and the milky clouds

in the sky; and listening to the songs of the birds, the

chirping of the cicadas, and the murmurings of the breezes,

he takes long walks in the meadows and lakeshore.67

It is observed that Rizal composed few poems abroad

at the height of his creative powers. Sorrow and handiwork

and endless love for country dominated his poetry. There was,

65 Loc. Cit. Jose Rizal: Life, Works, and Writing of a Genius,

Writer, Scientist, and National Hero, p. 235.

66 Ibid. p.80.

67 Ibid. p. 15.
 66

however, a different Rizal; it is the Rizal who could

poetically react to his immediate environment.68

However, Rizal’s wrote his later poems, his best poetry

in Dapitan, Mindanao, and in Fort Santiago, Manila as a

political prisoner. In Dapitan he wrote five poems; one

addressed to his political custodian, Don Ricardo Carnicero,

one to his wife Josephine Bracken; one to his mother, “Mi

Ritero”, a hymn in connection with the fiesta in Talisay,

Dapitan “Hymn To Talisay” and “Canto del Viajero”.69

In connection, Rizal’s adherence awed to nature which

poses sprinkling of romanticism was used in the

conceptualization in this study using Wordsworth’s

romanticism. The signposts are:

a) what is/are the action (s)/situation (s) described?

b) what feeling(s) or emotion(s) is recollected in

tranquility?

c) is the language used that of here and now?

colloquial? Formal? Or conversational?

d) what are the metaphors? The similitude in

dissimilitude?

T. Tuazon. Philippine Literature from Ancient Times to Present

68

(24, Lourdes Castillo Street, Sta. Mesa Heights, Quezon City: Philippines:
Del Castillo and Sons Inc, 1974) p. 153.

69 Ibid.
 67

On the other hand, the researchers tried to reflect upon

the result of this study on preservation and conservation of

our ecosystem and draw implications to teaching language and

literature.

Research Design

This descriptive analytical study focused on the

analysis of Jose Rizal’s poetry using Wordsworth’s

romanticism.

A close reading to the poems was done infused with

textual analysis to understand the poetic content of the poems

of Rizal.

Being qualitative, the study utilized an in-depth

analysis of the lines to come up implications on both the

environment and the teaching of language and literature.

Each of the poem was treated based on Wordsworth’s

romanticism.

Research Procedure

The researchers read Jose Rizal’s poetry pieces.

Afterwards, the researchers re-read the poems and chose those

 68

poems containing elements of Wordsworth’s romanticism. Those

that reflect rural landscape, wildlife, and all that presents

reverence to nature. This study followed a definite procedure

to come up with a reliable and precise analysis of the medium

used. The hereunder statements systematically developed the

course of this study.

a) The researchers beforehand read Jose Rizal’s poetry to

determine those that contains naturalistic themes.

b) The researchers selected ten (10) predetermined poems of

Jose Rizal as samples of the present study as the

researchers believe that those poems contain

naturalistic themes.

c) During the textual analysis process, the researchers

found out that five (5) poems do not contain any

naturalistic themes, hence, the omission of them.

d) The remaining five (5), those which contain elements on

rural landscape, wildlife, and all that presents

reverence to nature were extracted and treated as

subject of the analysis.

e) The researchers then after extracting those poems

containing naturalistic themes examined the tenets of

romanticism found in Rizal’s poem. Afterwards, the

researchers analyzed it based on Wordsworth’s

romanticism (action and situation, feelings recollected

 69

in tranquility, language used and similitude in

dissimilitude) through textual analysis.

f) The researchers after thorough examination related the

result to conservation and preservation of people’s

ecosystem and drew implications in the teaching of

language and literature.

 70

Chapter IV

PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS, AND INTERPRETATION OF THE DATA

The Tenets of Romanticism

Romanticism views poetry as the product of one’s inner

feelings and intuitions perceived by an individual with a

desire to return to the origins. It centers on the admiration

of objects, going back to nature, spontaneous overflow of

feelings that when reminisce even if one is already detached

from the external stimuli or actual environment perceived by

the senses one can still vibrantly remember the feelings and

emotions he/she experienced evoking a new but corresponding

emotion resulting to creation of new ideas; using simple

language, commonly uttered by ordinary people.

Flower among Flowers

The speaker in the poem “Flower Among Flowers”

transcends his perception in appreciating how beautiful the

flower is. It is so calm and undisturbed. This signifies the

fervent admiration of the speaker to its surroundings; which

is one of the elements of romanticism as enunciated by

Wordsworth himself in his Preface to Lyrical Ballads. This

also implies that the speaker can immediately relate to his

immediate environment. Its fragrance and candor capture his

attention.
 71

“Flower among flowers,

soft bud swooning,
that the wind moves
to a gentle crooning.
Wind of heaven,
wind of love,
you who gladden
all you espy;
you who smile
and will not sigh,
candor and fragrance
from above;”

This confirms De la Rosa’s (2003) words which express

that the feeling developed therein gives importance to the

action and situation, not action and situation to the

feelings.

Great art, by the romantic view, was the expression, in

new, appropriate language, of the basic moral and aesthetic

truths that would bring happiness to human beings. The

speaker, while fascinated with the flower the speaker

remember that flowers give colors and treatment to weary

souls.

“They say you spread

good everywhere
like the Spring
which fills the air
with joy and flowers
in April time.
They say you brighten
the soul that mourns
when dark clouds gather,
 72

and that without thorns

blossom the roses
in your clime.

Thus confirms Wordsworth’s words in his famous Preface

to Lyrical Ballads which says that man and nature are

essentially adapted with each other, that man is naturally a

mirror of the interesting properties of nature, that without

nature man is not a living thing.

Nature for romanticist poets is a very essential element

to produce a robust and magnificent masterpiece of poetry.

The idea of sublime is of vital importance for the romanticist

poet. It has been constantly discussed as the ‘strongest

emotion the mind is capable of feeling.’

Delight by the blossomed flowers, by the immediate

environment that comforts him, and by the goodness that he

feels everywhere brought by the surroundings, the speaker

compared the flower to a fairy that enhances and brings joy

to the soul.

“If then, like a fairy, you enhance the joy

Of those on whom you glance with the magic
charm
God gave to you;”
 73

Hymn to Talisay

The poem, “Hymn to Talisay” is said to have been written

by Rizal as a praise to the Talisay tree which is a favorite

rendezvous of his boys when he was still a teacher.

The speaker admires the beautiful budding of flowers

that emits from the tree. Its foliage that gives shade from

the scorching heat of sun, and its freshness that evokes

delight. The speaker gives honor and awe to the Talisay tree,

“In your vales that flowers adorn, and your fruitful leafy

shade, our thinking powers are being made, and soul with body

being grown.”

Spontaneity of feelings recollected in tranquility stems

from the speaker’s intense recollection of the magnificence

of the tree, the place, the vales, the mountains, and rocks,

“At Dapitan, the sandy shore, and rocks aloft on mountain

crest, form thy throne, O refuge blest, that we from childhood

days have known.”

The speaker views, turning back to nature, recoiled some

of his fond memories of the place, “With our games we churn

the sand, through the caves and crags we roam, on the rocks

we make our home, everywhere our arms can reach.”

 74

Thus confirms Waugh’s (2006) study which says that

romanticism go back and look at early childhood and

traditional rural labor conditions.

In Memory of My Town

The speaker in the poem “In Memory of My Town” presents

mystic communion to nature which suffuses the whole structure

of the poem. The speaker exalts rural life and external nature

over urban life. The speaker’s views bring him back to his

childhood memories.

“When Early Childhood’s happy days

In memory I see once more
Along the lovely verdant shore
That meets a gently murmuring sea;
When I recall the whisper soft
Of zephyrs dancing on my brow
With cooling sweetness, even now
New luscious life is born in me.”

Thus confirms the words in the book Elements of

Literature which says that romanticism relates always to

being fascinated with youth and innocence.

Nature has its ways of leading people to enjoy the

reminiscence of unforgotten experiences that is converted

into a spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings when the

speaker is alone and in rest. While privately and peacefully

resting, the speaker pictures his childhood days. The same

 75

natural ambience is recalled. He is reminiscing the moment

when he held a lily, “When I behold the lily white that sways

to do the wind’s command, while gently sleeping on the sand

the stormy water rests awhile.”

The speaker admires very much the picturesque of the

town that is nestling on a verdant plain with inland lake of

emerald waters, “I Yet recall a village plain, … Besides the

freshly cool lagoon, - the spot for which my heart beats

warm.” The lines also signify the simple rural life that the

speaker experiences during his childhood days.

This confirms Waugh’s (2007) words which says that

romanticism looks at early child hood and rural life

conditions.

There is the feeling of gratefulness to the Sonnum Bonum,

the arousing and enjoying emotions while intently looking at

the azure sky:

“I saw the Maker in the grandeur

Of your ancient hoary wood,
Ah, never in your refuge could
A mortal by regret be smitten;
And while upon your sky of blue
I gaze, no love nor tenderness
Could fail, for here on nature’s dress
My happiness itself was written.”
 76

There is a relief in the distant past in the speaker’s

sorrows. Finding oneself and doing away from the hustle-

bustle of the world, the speaker turns to nature as a remedy

during dismal hours, “Rich fount of my felicities, oh those

harmonious melodies which put to flight all dismal hours.”

My Retreat

“My Retreat” extols a place of peace and solitude where

one likes to go to be able to think or work well. It describes

an ideal place for a retreat where one can withdraw into

privacy and where one can enjoy a period of seclusion for

prayer and meditation.

The speaker retreated into a mortified wounded silence

away from the hustle-bustle of the city and sought stillness

of the woods and seas, repose from overthinking and from

grief. The woodlands and seas gives relief to the speaker.

Finding oneself and doing away from chaotic environment and

returning to nature become the remedy of the speaker, “From

the forest seeking peace and calmness divine, rest for the

weary brain and silence to my sorrow’s keen”.

The speaker enjoys the panoramic view of the purling

brook, the melody of the zither, the still sky and the

murmuring sea, “When the sky is serene how gently it flows,

and its zither unseen ceaselessly plays.”

 77

Nature has its ways of delighting people. One body that

becomes an object of admiration by the speaker is the native

brooks. Brooks is a sign of intensified sense of delight of

the external nature and rural life experience. Such a delight

the speaker experiences as he sees an overflowing brook from

the jungle descending from huge boulders giving a current

through bamboo pipes, “A purling brook from the woodland

glade, drops down o’er the stones and around it sweeps, whence

a fresh stream is drawn by the rough cane’s aid.”

The serenity of the surroundings gives the speaker a

sense of oneness with the universe. The deafening silence,

the barking of the dog and the twittering of the birds, the

sea and woodland and mostly, there is no nuisance of a

neighbor and a boastful man; this adheres to one tenet of

romanticism which is feelings recollected in tranquility. The

solitude felt by the speaker leads to a creation of

beautifully written lines. It is in romanticism where the

beauty of object is seen as it is and when reminisced the

attraction increases.

“The howl of the dog and the song of the

bird,
And only the Kalao’s hoarse call resound;
Nor is the voice of vain man to be heard;
My mind to harass or my steps to begird;
The woodlands alone and the sea wrap me
around.”
 78

The lines of the poem, therefore, corroborate with

Bloom’s study (2007) which says that romanticism celebrates

the common, human heart and the nature that cares for and

refreshes the heart. Indeed, nature gives comforts and solace

to weary hearts.

To the Flowers of Heidelberg

The poem “To the Flowers of Heidelberg”, the speaker

admires the beautiful natural surroundings. Nostalgic of his

country, the beautiful spring flowers reminded him of the

blooming flowers in Calamba. The speaker conversing with the

flowers commands it to deliver his love to his native land:

“Go to my native land, go, foreign flowers

Sown by the travelers on his way
And there, beneath its azure sky
Where all my affections lie
There from the weary pilgrim say,
What faith is his in that land of ours!”

Lourdes M. Ribo, et al. (2010) stated that romantic era

was characterized by an emphasis on individual’s thoughts,

which stemmed from a rebellion to tyrannical authority

inspired by the French and American Revolutions. In the

context, this is highlighted when the persona shows an

intuitive observation that only he can imagine in a passive

yet spontaneous overflowing of vibrant recollection while in

oneness with his surroundings especially of delight that the

 79

flowers bring. The speaker shows emotional effusiveness to

the present mood. He urges the flowers to bring peace, love,

and virtue to his beloved country and to his loved ones.

“Carry, carry, O flowers,

my love to my loved ones,
peace to my country and its fecund loam,
faith to its men and virtue to its women,
health to the gracious beings,
that dwell within the sacred paternal home.”

The speaker radiates an exceptionally attachment to the

flowers, he awed at seeing the beauty of the morning as it

greets the flowers with its sunbeam, its fragrance gives

delight to him. The speaker while savoring the stillness and

freshness of the flowers reminisces his native land, the azure

sky and the warming light, “…And with a mild warmth raises,

to life again the valley, the glade, the forest, he hails

that sun, still in its dawning, that in his country in full

zenith blazes.”

The speaker admires the beauty of the morning that he

metaphorically relates its whispers as mirth. The persona’s

delight of his surroundings shows his mystic communion with

nature: “Saw how when morning’s light, all your fragrance

stealing, Whispers to you as mirth, Playful songs of Love’s

delight….”
 80

The lines expressed by the poem confirms Wordsworth’s

words stipulated in his Preface to Lyrical Ballad which says

that man and nature are essentially adapted to each other,

that the mind of man is naturally a mirror of the fairest and

most interesting properties of nature.

Language Used

On the whole, the language in the five (5) poems is

everyday, direct, figurative, ordinary, conversational, and

plain all compartmentalized as simple. There is no attempt

that seems to possess a poetic diction. Most of lines in the

poem speaks about the speaker’s experiences in the

countryside showing a certain coloring for the imagination of

the readers. Moreover, Rizal’s poetry is seeming to be the

same style as of Wordsworth when it comes to the language

used. It traced the ‘gentle shock of mild surprise,’ and the

‘pause of deep silence’ in his poetry.70

The table that follows presents the tenets of

romanticism as highlighted in the five poems of Jose Rizal.

70 J. S. Carlson. Romantic Emphasis: Wordsworth’s Poetry and the

Marks of Culture. (Published Dissertation of the University of Michigan,
2004), p. 45.
 81

Table 1
Tenets of Romanticism

Showing
Spontaneous
admiration for Turning Back to Using Simple
Emotions When
Objects of Nature Language
reminisced
Nature

“Flower among “Wind of heaven, ““They say you Figurative/

flowers, soft wind of love, spread Conversational
bud swooning, you who gladden good everywhere
that the wind all you espy; like the Spring
moves to a you who smile which fills the
gentle crooning and will not air
Wind of heaven, sigh, with joy and
wind of love, candour and flowers
you who gladden fragrance in April time.”
all you espy; from above;
you who smile you who perhaps “They say you
and will not came down to brighten
sigh, earth the soul that
candour and to bring the mourns
fragrance lonely when dark clouds
from above; solace and gather,
mirth, and that without
and to be a joy thorns
for the heart to blossom the roses
capture. in your clime.”

Flower among
Flowers

“In your vales “With our games “At Dapitan, the Figurative
that flowers we churn the sandy shore
adorn sand, And rocks aloft
And your through the on mountain crest
fruitful leafy caves and crags Form thy throne,
shade, we roam, O refuge blest,
Our thinking On the rocks we That we from
powers are being make our home, childhood days
made, Everywhere our have known.”
And soul with arms can reach.”
body being
grown.”

Hymn To Talisay

“Ah yes! My “Ah, tender “When I behold Direct

footsteps childhood, the lily white
insecure lovely town, that sways to do
Rich fount of my the wind’s
felicities, command,
 82

In your dark Oh those while gently

forests deeply harmonious sleeping on the
sank; melodies sand
And there by Which put to the stormy water
every river’s flight all rests awhile;
bank dismal hours, when from the
I found Come back to my flowers there
refreshment and heart once more! softly breathes
delight; Come back, a bouquet
Within that gentle hours, I ravishingly
rustic temple yearn! sweet,
prayed Come back as the Out-poured the
With childhood’s birds return, newborn dawn to
simple faith At the budding meet,
unfeigned of the flowers.” As on us she
While cooling begins to smile.”
breezes, pure,
unstained,
Would send my
heart on
rapturous
flight.”

In Memory of My
Town

“A purling brook “By the “To see the same Everyday

from the spreading beach moon, all
woodland glade where the sands silver’d as of
Drops down o’er are soft and yore.
the stones and fine I feel the sad
around it At the foot of thoughts within
sweeps, the mouth in its me arise;
Whence a fresh mantle of green The fond
stream is drawn I have found a recollections of
by the rough home in the the troth we
cane’s aid; pleasant grove’s swore.
That in the confine; Of the field and
still night its In the shady the bower and the
murmur has made, woods, that wide seashore,
And in the day’s peace and The blushes of
heat a crystal calmness divine, joy, with the
fountain leaps.” Rest for the silence and
weary brain and sighs.”
silence to my
sorrow’s keen.”
My Retreat

“Saw how when “Go to my native “Bear then, O Conversational

morning light, land, go, flowers, love’s
all your foreign flowers. message bear;
fragrance Sown by the My love to all
stealing, traveler on his the love’d ones
whispers to you way. there,
as in mirth,
 83

playful songs of And there, Peace to my

Love’s delight. beneath its country—fruitful
He, too, murmurs azure sky. land—
his love’s Where all my Faith whereon its
feeling in the affections lie; sons may stand,
tongue he There from the And virtue for
learned at weary pilgrim its daughter’s
birth” say, care;
What faith is All those beloved
his in that land creatures greet,
of ours! That still around
home’s altar
To the Flowers meet.”
of Heidelberg
 84

Wordsworth’s Romanticism

Wordsworth’s romanticism views poetry as spontaneous

overflow of powerful feelings recollected in tranquility. The

feeling therein developed gives importance to the action and

situation, not action and situation to the feelings. It seeks

to identify the action and situation; feelings and emotions

recollected in tranquility; the language used which is

everyday, direct, figurative, ordinary, plain and simple all

compartmentalized as simple. There is no attempt to adopt

poetic diction. Most of the lines in the poem used words

commonly used by country folks showing a certain color for

the imagination of the readers; the metaphors- similitude in

dissimilitude.

Flower among Flowers

“Flowers among Flowers” describes the feelings of the

speaker unending delight of the flower as the wind gently

caresses him, “Flower among flowers, soft bud swooning, that

the wind moves to a gentle crooning.”

It narrates the speaker’s immediate experience as he

indulges himself on liking the flowers that he sees. He feels

its candor and smells its fragrance. He metaphorically says

that the flowers perhaps are heaven-sent to assuage lonely

 85

hearts, “You who perhaps came down to earth to bring the

lonely solace and mirth.”

The lines of the poem corroborate to that of Bloom (2007)

who says that Wordsworth hallows the commonplace, celebrates

the common, human heart, and the nature that cares for and

refreshes the heart.

The lines have enlightening effects that weigh in the

significance of the flowers to people. There is an spontaneous

overflow of emotions as the speaker savor the moment, “They

say you spread good everywhere like the Spring which fills

the air with joy and flowers in April time.” The speaker

further said that flowers have healing powers; it brightens

the lonely soul, “They say you brighten the soul that mourns

when dark clouds gather, and that without thorns blossom the

roses in your clime.”

There are figures of speech that expresses the feelings

of the speaker while being with nature. The language used are

direct, colloquial though structured figuratively.

“They say you spread

good everywhere
like the Spring
which fills the air
with joy and flowers
in April time.”

-Simile
 86

“They say you brighten

the soul that mourns
when dark clouds gather,
and that without thorns
blossom the roses
in your clime.”

-Metaphor and Hyperbole

“If then, like a fairy,

you enhance
the joy of those
on whom you glance
with the magic charm
God gave to you;”

-Simile

Hymn to Talisay

The personas in the poem “Hymn to Talisay” seem to bring

back to the scenery how their childhood days in Dapitan were

spent. This attraction augmented the speakers’ attraction to

the Talisay tree and further reminisce, “With our games we

churn the sand, through the caves and crags we roam, On the

rocks we make our home, everywhere our arms can reach.”

This adoration of the Talisay tree of the persona creates

an intermingling nostalgic feelings and deeper passions. The

lines use figurative language to add color to the poem.

“At Dapitan, the sandy shore

And rocks aloft on mountain crest
Form thy throne, o refuge blest,
That we from childhood days have known.”
 87

-personification/hyperbole

“In your vales that flowers adorn

And your fruitful leafy shade,
Our thinking powers are being made,
And soul with body being grown.”

-metaphor

The lines of the poem culled out validate the argument

presented in the book Elements of Literature which says that

Wordsworth’s romanticism sought to move the minds of the

people to gaze around the charming beauty of nature. This

also gives justice to the claims of Waugh (2006) who says

that romanticist contemplates the infinity of the mountains,

groves, landscapes and the like.

In Memory of My Town

The speaker (Jose Rizal) in the poem “In Memory of My

Town” reminisce the town of Calamba. The speaker is impressed

by its wonderful picturesque, its verdant plain, its emerald

waters and canopy of azure skies. An ordinary yet emphatic

language is being communicated. The natural utterance

reflects the real language of nature.

“When Early Childhood’s happy days

In memory I see once more
Along the lovely verdant shore
That meets a gently murmuring sea;
When I recall the whisper soft
Of zephyrs dancing on my brow
With cooling sweetness, even now
 88

New luscious life is born in me.”

According to Ladeño (2012) Wordsworth’s romanticism

looks with joy at rediscovering what seems a strange

condition- the self-absorbed in nature. Thus, the lines

expressed validate his views based on his study.

Suddenly the speaker finds solace in his surroundings

while walking, admiring, gazing at the environment, suddenly

there indwells on his mind a recollection of a place where he

prayed at a temple, relished the cooling breeze, and made his

heart at peace. His surroundings pacify the uproar inside his

heart.

“Ah yes! My footsteps insecure

In your dark forests deeply sank;
And there by every river’s bank
I found refreshment and delight;
Within that rustic temple prayed
With childhood’s simple faith unfeigned
While cooling breezes, pure, unstained,
Would send my heart on rapturous flight.”

The speaker, speaking directly, is a pantheist. He

equates and sees God in the forces and laws of the universe,

a sight so touching in its majesty. He praises nature like

God: “For thy peace, thy bliss, and tranquility, O Genius

Good, so kind!”

The simplicity of the lines in the poem is conveyed by

the speaker’s overflow of thoughts and emotions in his

 89

language that is never mechanical. The language being direct

and ordinary is used by the poet to show the speaker’s

emotions. Jose Rizal uses figurative language to give beauty

to the lines.

“Ah, tender childhood, lovely town,

Rich fount of my felicities,
Oh those harmonious melodies
Which put to flight all dismal hours,
Come back to my heart once more!
Come back, gentle hours, I yearn!
Come back as the birds return,
At the budding of the flowers.”

-simile and metaphor

“When I recall the whisper soft

Of zephyrs dancing on my brow
With cooling sweetness, even now
New luscious life is born in me.”

-personification

“While cooling breezes, pure, unstained,

Would send my heart on rapturous flight.”

-Hyperbole

My Retreat

The speaker in the poem, “My Retreat” is in plain beach

focusing the sight on the pristine sea waves and the

magnificence of the sky. The speaker built a hut beneath the

pleasant orchard seeking the serenity of the woods and relaxes

in an expressionless mood.
 90

“By the spreading beach where the sands are

soft and fine
At the foot of the mouth in its mantle of green
I have built my hat in the pleasant grove’s
confine;
from the forest seeking peace and calmness
divine
rest for the weary brain and silence to my
sorrow’s keen.”

According to the encyclical of Pope Francis Laudato Si

(2015) he stressed that humans should never forget that the

meat of their body are from dust of this earth, molded out

from the clay of this earth. The speaker, while thanking and

conversing to the storm and heaven-born breeze realizes he is

from dust and from dust he shall return, “That you knew of

the hour my wild flight to ease, to cast me back to the soil

from whence I rose.”

The lines of the poem verify what Matthew Arnold’s views

of Wordsworth’s poems, as cited by Ladeño (2012) which says

that nature has healthy effect, that nature has an

extraordinary power, that there is joy offered in the simple

primary affections.

The feelings of the speaker are ignited while looking at

the silvered moon. This adoration of the night-sky

imperceptibly created a complex mixed feelings of sadness on

the persona which is an important tool in exciting the

feelings therein as it gives importance to the action and

 91

situation. On the whole, the language used is plain and

figurative.

“To see the same moon, all silver’d as of yore,

I feel the sad thoughts in me arise;
the fond recollections of troth we swore.”

-simile

“Of the field and the bower and the wide

seashore,
the blushes of joy, with the silence and
sighs.”

-polysyndeton

“The sea, ah, the sea! For me it is all,

And it massively sweeps from the worlds
apart;
Its smile in the morn to my soul is a call,
And when in the evening my faith seems to
pall,
It breathes with its sadness on echo to my
heart.”

-personification and hyperbole

“The waves with their sighs tell of their

woes-
Tales that are lost as they role in the
heights”

-personification and simile

“Then from their heights the mountains

groan,
And the trees shiver tremulous from great
unto least;
The groves rustle plaintive and the herds
utter moan…”

-assonance and personification

 92

The lines of the poem confirm Bloom (2007) study which

says that nature gives solace, refreshments and ease to weary

hearts.

To the Flowers of Heidelberg

“To the Flowers of Heidelberg” glorify the morning

light emits by the sun. The speaker savor and smell the

fragrance of the flower that environs him. There is the

feeling of delight and gaiety while intently watching the

blooming flowers.

“Saw how when mornings light,

All your fragrance stealing,
Whispers to you as in mirth,
Playful songs of Love’s delight,
He, too, murmurs his love’s feeling,
In the tongue he learned at birth.”

It is in romanticism that the beauty of object is seen

as it is but when reminisce the feelings therein increased

and vibrantly remembered by the poet. In a visionary mood,

with the slow pace of his surroundings he finds himself at

home. The speaker expresses his feelings towards the

panoramic view. He is fascinated by the beauty of the

firmament where the sun’s height is the same as the

Keenigsthul Hill. The speaker praises the sun for giving light

to the valleys, groves and woods.

 93

“That when the sun of Keenigstuhl’s height

Pours out its golden flood,
And with its slowly warning light
Gives life to vale and grove and wood,
He greets that sun, here only upraising,
Which in his native land is at its zenith
blazing.”

The lines corroborate to the words of Waugh (2006) who

says that to a romanticist there is always a romantic gaze

stilled in contemplation of imminent nature, or of landscapes

suggestive of infinity- mountains, groves, landscapes,

distant plains, seas and the like.

His perception of admiration transcends into intense

feelings of recollection when the longing for his country

suffuse in his mind while looking advertently to the blooming

flowers along the cool banks of Neckar River.

“And tell there of that day he stood,

Near to ruin’d castle gray,
By Neckar’s banks, or shady wood,
And pluck’d you from beside the way,
Tell, too, the tale to you addressed,
And how with tender care,
Your bending leaves he press’d
‘Twixt pages of some volume rare.”

The language used in this poem is direct because the

speaker is addressing the flower as a human directly. The

speaker personifies the flower. The lines contain nostalgic

emotions that weigh the significance of the speaker’s country

 94

or place. The following lines are the metaphors of nature

that Rizal’s used:

“Saw how when mornings light,

All your fragrance stealing,
Whispers to you as in mirth…”

-Simile

“Playful songs of Love’s delight,

He, too, murmurs his love’s feeling,
In the tongue he learned at birth.”

-Metaphor

“That when the sun Keenigstuhl’s height

Pour out its golden flood,
And with its slowly warming light
Gives life to vale and grove and wood
He greets that sun, here only upraising,
Which in his native land is at its zenith
blazing.”

-Hyperbole

“And when you come unto its shore,

This kiss I now on you bestow,
fling where the winged breezes blow;
That borne on them it may hover o’er
All that I love, esteem, and adore.”

-Personification/Hyperbole

The lines expressed in the poems confirms Patricia

Waugh’s (2006) study which says that romanticist poems look

with joy in rediscovering on what it seems unestranged

conditions: early childhood, traditional rural labour, wise

passiveness, and the self-absorbed nature.

 95

The table that follows presents Wordsworth’s romanticism

as highlighted in the five poems of Jose Rizal.

 96

Table 2

Wordsworth’s Romanticism

Feelings
Action and (Similitude in
Recollected in Language Used
Situation Dissimilitude)
Tranquility

Flower among direct/ “They say you

Flowers colloquial spread
good everywhere
“Flower among like the Spring
flowers, which fills the
soft bud air
swooning, with joy and
that the wind flowers
moves in April time.”
to a gentle
crooning.” -Simile

“They say you

(The speaker brighten
while intently the soul that
looks at the mourns
flowers felt when dark clouds
the caress of gather,
the wind) and that without
thorns
blossom the roses
in your clime.”

-Metaphor and
Hyperbole

“If then, like a

fairy,
you enhance
the joy of those
on whom you glance
with the magic
charm
God gave to you;”

-Simile
 97

Hymn to Talisay

“With our games “At Dapitan, figurative “At Dapitan, the

we churn the the sandy shore sandy shore
sand, through And rocks aloft And rocks aloft on
the caves and on mountain mountain crest
crags we roam, crest Form thy throne, o
On the rocks we Form thy refuge blest,
make our home, throne, o That we from
everywhere our refuge blest, childhood days
arms can That we from have known.”
reach.” childhood days
have known.” -personification/
hyperbole
(The speaker,
delights in (The speaker
remembering reminisces the
what he and his place where he
students used used to be with “In your vales
to do under the his students) that flowers adorn
Talisay tree) And your fruitful
leafy shade,
Our thinking
powers are being
made,
And soul with body
being grown.”

-metaphor

In Memory of My “Ah yes! My Direct and “Ah, tender

Town footsteps Ordinary childhood, lovely
insecure town,
“When Early In your dark Rich fount of my
Childhood’s forests deeply felicities,
happy days sank; Oh those
In memory I see And there by harmonious
once more every river’s melodies
Along the bank Which put to
lovely verdant I found flight all dismal
shore refreshment and hours,
That meets a delight; Come back to my
gently Within that heart once more!
murmuring sea; rustic temple Come back, gentle
When I recall prayed hours, I yearn!
the whisper With Come back as the
soft childhood’s birds return,
 98

Of zephyrs simple faith At the budding of

dancing on my unfeigned the flowers.”
brow While cooling
With cooling breezes, pure,
sweetness, even unstained, -simile and
now Would send my metaphor
New luscious heart on
life is born in rapturous “When I recall the
me.” flight.” whisper soft
Of zephyrs dancing
on my brow
With cooling
(The speaker sweetness, even
remembers his (The speaker is now
luscious natal euphoric in New luscious life
land) recalling is born in me.”
places he used
to be when he -personification
was younger and
free)
“While cooling
breezes, pure,
unstained,
Would send my
heart on rapturous
flight.”

-Hyperbole

My Retreat

“By the “To see the plain/ “To see the same
spreading beach same moon, all figurative moon, all silver’d
where the sands silver’d as of as of yore,
are soft and yore, I feel the sad
fine I feel the sad thoughts in me
At the foot of thoughts in me arise;
the mouth in arise; the fond
its mantle of the fond recollections of
green recollections troth we swore.”
I have built my of troth we
hat in the swore. -simile
pleasant Of the field
grove’s and the bower “Of the field and
confine; and the wide the bower and the
from the forest seashore, wide seashore,
seeking peace the blushes of the blushes of
and calmness joy, with the joy, with the
divine silence and silence and
sighs.” sighs.”
 99

rest for the

weary brain and -polysyndeton
silence to my
sorrow’s keen.” “The sea, ah, the
sea! For me it is
all,
(The speaker (The feelings And it massively
rests from of the speaker sweeps from the
overthinking was ignited as worlds apart;
and repose from he recollected Its smile in
his griefs. He in tranquility the morn to my
is being person(s)from soul is a call,
comforted by the past) And when in the
nature.) evening my faith
seems to pall,
It breathes with
its sadness on
echo to my heart.”

-personification
and hyperbole

“The waves with

their sighs tell
of their woes-
Tales that are
lost as they role
in the heights”

-personification
and simile

“Then from their

heights the
mountains groan,
…The groves rustle
plaintive and the
herds utter moan…”

-personification

“And the trees

shiver tremulous
from great unto
least;”

-assonance

To the Flowers “And tell there direct “Saw how when

of Heidelberg of that day he mornings light,
stood, All your fragrance
“Saw how when Near to ruin’d stealing,
mornings light, castle gray, Whispers to you as
All your By Neckar’s in mirth…”
fragrance banks, or shady
stealing, wood, -Simile
 100

Whispers to you And pluck’d you

as in mirth, from beside the “Playful songs of
Playful songs way, Love’s delight,
of Love’s Tell, too, the He, too, murmurs
delight, tale to you his love’s
He, too, addressed, feeling,
murmurs his And how with In the tongue he
love’s feeling, tender care, learned at birth.”
In the tongue Your bending
he learned at leaves he -Metaphor
birth.” press’d
‘Twixt pages of “That when the sun
some volume Keenigstuhl’s
rare.” height
Pour out its
(The speaker is (Nostalgic, the golden flood,
delight by the speaker was And with its
magnificence of reminded of the slowly warming
the sun and the flowers and light
morning light loved ones back Gives life to vale
touches his in his natal and grove and wood
skin.) land. He is He greets that
homesick) sun, here only
upraising,
Which in his
native land is at
its zenith
blazing.”

-Hyperbole

“And when you come

unto its shore,
This kiss I now on
you bestow,
fling where the
winged breezes
blow;
That borne on them
it may hover o’er
All that I love,
esteem, and
adore.”

-Personification/
Hyperbole
 101

“We can find in Rizal the qualities and skills of

an authentic Filipino who treasures our natural
patrimony and uses earth’s resources for the health
and well-being of the people,”
-Roy Alvarez, Ecowaste
Coalition President

Reflections for the Conservation and Preservation of the

Environment

Jose Rizal is a champion for the preservation and

conservation of the people’s environment. People can

immediately see in Rizal’s poems its naturalistic

inclinations. He often uses nature to express his ideas and

hide some truths or ideals he wants to put across in his

poetry. Poetry and nature becomes his shield and relief in

moments of crises and sorrows. There is always a romantic

gaze at the environment everywhere he goes and these channels

strong and deep emotions to him. He sees beyond from a simple

object of nature. His poetry transcends and exalts nature in

a manner that brings delights and happiness not only to him

but also pleasurable to the readers.

Six reasons have been found out based on the study done

on the Jose Rizal’s poems on why people should care for the

environment:

The poem Flower among Flowers invokes for a clean

environment which is essential for healthy living, “They say

 102

you spread good everywhere like the Spring which fills the

air with joy and flowers in April time.” If people are to

continue to be ignorant and will not change its ways and

lifestyles the earth will end up polluted and contaminated by

toxins that have a harmful impact on people’s health. The

earth, people’s home, is beginning to look more and more like

an immense pile of filth. Measures were taken by different

sector of the government but no certain measures are taken

until, perhaps, after people’s health has been irreversibly

affected. People take sick, for example from breathing high

levels of smoke from fuels used in cooking or heating and

from smoke-belching vehicles. Pollution becomes a daily part

of people’s lives. Exposure to atmospheric pollutants

produces a broad spectrum of health hazards, especially for

the poor, and causes millions of premature deaths.71 Hence,

Jose Rizal reminds people to take care for the nature as it

gives joy and solace to human beings. According to Bobby

Mcleod, an Aboriginal Activist and Poet, “When the earth is

sick and polluted, human health is impossible… to heal

ourselves we must heal our planet, and to heal our planet we

must heal ourselves.”

71 Loc. Cit. Laudato Si, p. 20.

 103

Hymn to Talisay let people ask themselves like, “Will

the posterity still have clean air to breathe? Will they still

have trees to climb up on? Will they still have rivers to

swim?” These are questions that the poem posits to which

people should to ask within. These queries were made from the

following lines:

“In your vales that flowers adorn

And your fruitful leafy shade,
Our thinking powers are being made,
And soul with body being grown.”

Will the children of tomorrows still have trees to climb on?

Will there be trees were foliage serves as shade? These are

queries that people ought to answer since they are all busy

for the nations progress to the point that at times nature is

compromised. Hence the poem reminds people that their great-

great and great grandchildren will still live and that they

should make sacrifices today if they know the menace that the

future generations will have. People should realize what kind

of environment they are handing to the future. President

Theodore Roosevelt once said “But there must be the look

ahead, there must be a realization of the fact that to waste,

to destroy, our natural resources, to skin and exhaust the

land instead of using it so as to increase its usefulness,

will result in undermining in the days of our children the

 104

very prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to them

amplified and developed.”

“In Memory of my Town” the external environment of the

speaker (Jose Rizal) was recollected as exemplified by the

following lines:

“When Early Childhood’s happy days

In memory I see once more
Along the lovely verdant shore
That meets a gently murmuring sea;
When I recall the whisper soft
Of zephyrs dancing on my brow
With cooling sweetness, even now
New luscious life is born in me.”

Calamba- a picturesque town nestling on a verdant plain

covered with irrigated ricefields and sugar-lands. Nostalgic,

Rizal reminisces the emerald waters beneath the canopy of

azure skies. Rizal loved Calamba with all his heart and soul.72

Will people of the next generations still have the same

feelings of nature as felt by Jose Rizal in his hometown?

Will they still cherish nature’s healing powers that gives

solace to the weary souls? These are the questions that people

are to face before plundering the environment. Nature,

therefore, is the reflection of the people’s character. Jose

Rizal loves nature, hence, he is a naturalist and

72 Loc. Cit. Jose Rizal: Life, Works, and Writing of a Genius,

Writer, Scientist, and National Hero, p.9.

 105

environmentalist; furthermore, it is seen in his character

and mirrored in his poetry.

People should always live and remember the maxim “Do not

do unto others what you don’t want to do unto you.” Nature

gives people everything for free- clean air, clean water,

beautiful landscapes, breathtaking views and the like. People

take so much from nature, but what do people give in return?

Pollution? The least people can do is by showing our

appreciation to its beautiful firmament, to its external

beauty and by protecting and preserving the people’s common

home- the earth. Pope Francis I in his encyclical Laudato Si

reiterates that the people’s sister (earth) cries for help

because of the harm inflicted on her by the irresponsible use

and abuse of her goods by people. People see themselves as

masters and lords entitled to plunder the earth. Ironically,

in Genesis, people were entitled by God as steward of His

creation but today people have become the masters of the

earth.73 The violence presents in the hearts of many is

symptoms of sickness evident in the soil, water, in the air

and in all forms of life. The earth is burdened and laid

waste.

73 Op Cit. Laudato Si, p. 20.

 106

My Retreat is for those busy people who have no time to

ponder and reflect. According to Ladeño (2012) busy people

should find time to visit the countryside where beaches,

farms, forests can be found to savor fresh air and nature’s

cool embrace. Hence, the poem offers that busy people should

find time to appreciate nature’s loveliness. The lines

explicitly spoken about the nature’s power to heal oneself.

The treatment and relief nature’s offers to someone in sorrow

and grief is very much seen in the first stanza of the poem:

“By the spreading beach where the sands are

soft and fine
At the foot of the mouth in its mantle of green
I have built my hat in the pleasant grove’s
confine;
from the forest seeking peace and calmness
divine,
rest for the weary brain and silence to my
sorrow’s keen.”

People even for once in their lives should find

themselves in one or in harmony of the creation. Rizal in one

of the lines spoke about the material universe created by the

Sonnum Bonum. His boundless affection for the soil, water,

mountains and everything as it were a caress of God. The lines

“That you knew of the hour my wild flight to ease, to cast me

back to the soil whence I rose” tells people to have a sense

of themselves. Since they are molded from dust to dust they

are to return. People have forgotten that they themselves are

 107

from the dust of this earth, that their very bodies are made

up of the elements of this earth, the air they breathe, the

life they received, and the refreshing water that it offers.

People should come to realize that without nature, without

the earth, without the environment there is also no people.

If men and women will not heed the call to turn a new leaf

from their lifestyles that cause degradation to the

environment, people will see in the near future both nature

and human resources will deteriorate together.

The poem “To the Flowers of Heidelberg” narrates about

the fascination that Rizal had while looking at the blooming

flowers called forget-me-not when he happened to be at the

cool banks of Neckar River in Germany. The following lines

nostalgic feeling:

“Go to my native land, go, foreign flowers.

Sown by the traveler on his way.
And there, beneath its azure sky.
Where all my affections lie;
There from the weary pilgrim say,
What faith is his in that land of ours!”

The beautiful flowers reminded him of the blooming

flowers at the garden of his home in Calamba. This poem

reminds people that Earth is People’s Home. It is where people

live, so people should better take care of it or would people

rather live in a polluted dump? Paul McCartney said once “Out

of all those millions and millions of planets floating around

 108

there in space, this is our planet, this is our little one,

so we just got to be aware of it and take care of it.” If the

poem is still unconvincing try to answer these questions;

“Will the next generation still have the same fascination as

Rizal had? Will they still have clean waters to refresh

themselves? Will they still have the same colors, fragrance

and flower like forget-me-not? What are the people of today

say to the future generation if they will ask about the

environment? People of today must give chance for the future

generation so they may cherish the same environment that

people of today have.

There happened to have a lost in biodiversity. The

earth’s resources are also being plundered because of short-

sighted approaches to the economy, commerce and production.

The loss of forests and woodlands entails the loss of species

which may constitute extremely important resources in the

future, not only for food but also for curing disease and

other uses.74

The table that follows contains environmental

preservation measures and corresponding lines lifted from the

poems.

74 Ibid. p. 32.
 109

Table 3
Environmental Preservation and Conservation

Environmental
Preservation and Environmental
Line(s) from the poems
Conservation concerns
Measures
 Air pollution
 Create a  Exposure to
low-carbon atmospheric
society. pollutants
 One that produces
drastically spectrum of
reduces health
“They say you spread good carbon hazards,
everywhere like the Spring which dioxide especially
fills the air with joy and emissions to for the poor,
flowers in April time.” stabilize and causes
climate millions of
Flower among Flowers change. The premature
earth if death
freed from
air
pollution
would make
people savor
fresh air
 Plant Trees  Plant trees
to lower to prevent
“In your vales that flowers carbon erosion,
adorn dioxide in landslides,
And your fruitful leafy shade, the air. flashfloods
Our thinking powers are being  People who and the like.
made, cut trees
And soul with body being without
grown.” permission
from the
Hymn to Talisay DENR must be
penalized.
 Do not waste  Depletion of
“When Early Childhood’s happy water. natural
days  Clean brooks resources
In memory I see once more and especially on
Along the lovely verdant shore seashores. waters.
That meets a gently murmuring  Avoid  Water
sea; throwing pollution.
When I recall the whisper soft diapers and  Fresh water
Of zephyrs dancing on my brow other toxins is being
With cooling sweetness, even to the sea contaminate.
now or to any  Fresh water
New luscious life is born in body of is
me.” waters. indispensable
for human
 110

In Memory of My Town  Join clean- life and for

up in supporting
coastal terrestrial
areas and aquatic
 Close mining ecosystems.
industry
near coasts.

“By the spreading beach where  Illegal  Deforestation

the sands are soft and fine loggers must  Waste in
At the foot of the mouth in its be beaches,
mantle of green penalized. lakes and
I have built my hat in the They are the other body of
pleasant grove’s confine; reasons why waters.
from the forest seeking peace flashfloods  Detergents
and calmness divine, and the like and chemical
rest for the weary brain and happens. products
silence to my sorrow’s keen.”  There is continue to
grandeur in pour in
nature as rivers, lakes
people go and seas.
busy in  Slash and
their daily burn.
routines.
 Kaingin.
Hence, it is
in solitude
that one is
able to
appreciate
nature.
 Stop
throwing
anything
chemical
products or
toxins to
My Retreat
beaches,
lakes and
rivers.
“Go to my native land, go,  Do away from  Flowers are
foreign flowers. plucking being plucked
Sown by the traveler on his way. flowers and thrown
And there, beneath its azure except if it away in the
sky. is ready to streets and
Where all my affections lie; be plucked. anywhere.
There from the weary pilgrim  Flowers  Flowers are
say, manifest seen wasted
What faith is his in that land nature’s and trampled
of ours!” loveliness. on the ground
Hence,
people
should never
play with
To the Flowers of Heidelberg them.
 111

IMPLICATIONS TO LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE TEACHING

From the very early days of American administration of

the country, English was adopted as the medium of instruction

in schools to facilitate the indoctrination or

Americanization of Filipinos. The late historian Teodoro A.

Agoncillo said that the introduction of the American type of

education in the Philippines laced ‘native ideas, customs and

traditions and even national identity of the Filipinos in

danger of obliteration.’ These words of Agoncillo really is

true even until today. Since time immemorial Filipinos

abreast different culture from Spanish colonization, American

and Japanese occupation. The influence of these cultures from

different eras is pretty much solid and strong. Thus, even

today in our curriculum Filipinos are fascinated with foreign

authors instead of its country’s local writers.

The reviewed poems of Jose Rizal show admiration to

nature and caring for the environment. Hence these

ecological-friendly poems of Rizal should be taught and

integrated in the curriculum.

With the advent of the k-12 Curriculum, education sector

should encourage curriculum crafters to integrate these poems

that expresses love for the environment by streamlining Dr.

Jose Rizal’s poetry.

 112

Educationist should make sure that learners are

effective accelerator of progress and one way of making them

as such is by instilling on them ecological values by using

Jose Rizal’s poems as the vehicle of inculcation. Every

teacher wanted to produce a learner who knows how to manage

well these natural resources especially today that the earth

is suffering from environmental degradation, it is more than

ever imperative to remind and to enlighten the posterity, the

generation today, the learners of today to take care, to stand

and be the steward, that people ought to be, of the people’s

common home- the earth. People incessantly ask themselves,

why is it that despite the richness of the Philippines human

and natural resources the Philippines is ranked always as

poorest country in the world? Philippines is not a poor

country it is only a mismanaged economy, mismanagement of

natural resources. Hence, today is the time to anchor the

curriculum and lessons to these ecological-friendly poems of

Jose Rizal. This will not only foster love for the environment

but as well as nationalism in their hearts. They will not

only grow in love with the sweetness of the poem but also

will develop patrimony. Moreover, the teaching of language

today is organized through teaching literature, so it is never

difficult for the teacher anymore to merge to the lesson

 113

teachings about environmental preservation. Hence, the term

language in literature.

Jose Rizal’s writings and poems created a hefty impact

to the society. He showed to the world that “Pen is mightier

than sword.” Thus, this maxim must again echo in our society,

education, school and institution to call for unity in

achieving these goals of preserving and conserving the

people’s common home- the earth and the best channel for this

to be realized is to bring back ecological-friendly poems of

our local writers especially of Jose Rizal. This is the main

reason why it is just and fitting that Filipinos should get

acquainted with him and his writings and this mission shall

only be done by integrating and teaching it to the classroom.

The teacher as front-liners has the obligation to

instill into the hearts of the learners love for the

environment by teaching Rizal’s ecological-poems. The method

is simple, contemporize it and anchor it according to their

levels of understanding.

Dr. Jose Rizal is oftentimes recognized by his writings

such as: “Noli Me Tangere”, “El Felibusterismo”, “My

Retreat”, “Sa Aking Mga Kababata”, and “To the Filipino

Youth”. However, there are still poems of him that are left
 114

unchecked or in other words “not really famous” and beyond

people’s knowledge.

The school, particularly Literature classes are the best

channel in acquainting these poems and writings to the

students. However, it is sad to note that there are Literature

teachers who seem “strangers in their own heritage and

culture” and they far better known foreign authors rather

than Dr. Jose Rizal or other local Filipino writers.

This implies that authorities particularly curriculum

crafters should revisit the curriculum specifically the

content standards in every grade level. The content

standards, basically, should contain the needs and wants of

the learners and embody the aspirations of the country. Dr.

Jose Rizal’s poems and writings should have a prominent place

in literature classes, courses, programs and curriculum. In

such way, students can learn the foreign literature without

lagging Filipino literature.

Furthermore, these poems of Dr. Jose Rizal do not only

contain admiration for external environment it also teaches

every reader that without nature there is no tomorrow, there

is no life, and there is nothing to appreciate in the

environment. Values such as caring for the nature embodies

 115

Dr. Jose Rizal’s poetry, in this ground, it is a must that

these poems be included in the curriculum.

In capsule, the researchers believe that Philippines is

not a poor country it is only a mismanaged economy,

mismanagement of natural resources that when managed

wonderfully the country will go onwards bringing back the

greatness of the Philippines.

 116

Chapter V

SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Summary

This study titled Romanticists Readings on Jose Rizal’s

Selected poems centered on revealing nature’s dazzling beauty

and how nature influenced Rizal’s writings. Jose Rizal’s

poems with naturalistic themes were taken as samples using

Wordsworth’s romanticism. The lines of every poem were

closely analyzed to draw reflections for the conservation and

preservation of the environment and to draw implications of

Rizal’s poem to the teaching of language and literature. This

study probed the tenets of romanticism and also analyzed and

identified in the context the place of Wordsworth’s

romanticism on every selected poem.

This descriptive-analytical study used an in-depth and

careful analysis of the lines to come up with reflections on

the preservation and conservation of the environment. Five

poems with naturalistic themes or with touch of nature were

reviewed in this study.

Through close reading of the text, it was discovered

that majority of the poems selected embody the desires to

return to origin highlighting the intuitive power of

 117

imagination; admiration to objects of nature and indwelling

turning back to nature that leads to spontaneous overflows of

emotion; revolving around on the spontaneity of feelings

impeded yet when recalled is vibrant that results the creation

of reflection expounded in a smooth rolling phrases of blank

and lyric verses.

Most of Rizal’s poetry displays mystical experiences and

union with the external nature like the sea, lake, flowers,

valleys, trees, groves, birds, mountains and on the field.

The spontaneity of feelings arises from a reminiscence

of past encounter of nature and people that is recollected in

solitude. The language used though at times figurative in

nature to create a coloring is very simple, that of a country

folk.

Jose Rizal’s selected poetry as viewed in Wordsworth’s

romanticism contains the elements of romanticism. The

spontaneous overflow of powerful emotions recollected in

tranquility or when the speaker is in nature. The feeling

therein developed gives importance to the action and

situation, not the action and situation to the feelings. It

sought to identify the action and situation; feelings

recollected in tranquility; the language used; and the

similitude in dissimilitude.
 118

Jose Rizal is a person who can immediately relate to his

external environment. His poetry always looked at the

vastness of the horizons while in solitude, talked about the

time he spent in the beach, hearing the twittering of the

birds, watching the sea waves, and adore the mesmerizing sky.

Appreciation for the flowers, valleys, mountains and brooks

were also contemplated. Reminiscences of loved ones and

admiration for inanimate object while alone were also

reflected in his poems.

The recollection of powerful feelings occurs when the

speaker happens to be in oneness with nature or in solitude

and when the imagination is in its highest hue.

The language used is simple and lyrical yet figurative.

The language used are plain, colloquial, figurative,

conversational, direct, everyday and ordinary. The similitude

in dissimilitude is expressed in simile, polysedenton,

personification, metaphor, and hyperbole.

The majority of the nature’s representation is on the

delights at looking at the azure sky, the firmament, the

beauty of the gathering clouds, and the murmuring seas, the

twittering of the birds, the sounds of the brooks and the

fragrant flowers. Moreover, nature serves as a haven for weary

 119

hearts and for people looking for repose from overthinking

and grief.

Jose Rizal poems, furthermore, center on the reverence

of and admiration for nature. He sees God in nature. He thanks

God for giving us nature and all its goodness has to offer.

Hence, he shows conviction by instilling values of the natural

gifts and salvage it from harm.

Human beings, therefore, rely on nature.

Conclusions and Implications

The findings led to the following conclusions:

Rizal poems embody the romantic elements of romanticism.

The selected poems of Jose Rizal bats for a simple life close

to nature’s loveliness. Poetry of Jose Rizal expresses

thoughts and ideals through nature. This implies that

romantic period characterized by the emphasis of individuals’

thoughts by employing or using nature as a way of expressing

the thoughts and ideals. Jose Rizal poems possess the tenets

of romanticism. It shows admiration to object of nature, the

language is simple (because he used to live in rural areas)

yet figurative to show colors to the imagination to the

readers’ mind. His poems also contain lines caused by overflow

 120

of powerful feelings recollected in tranquility. Rizal based

on the study retire from the busy world by turning his gaze

or by being in solitude with nature. Hence, the tenet turning

back to nature. He reposes from overthinking from his grief

and sorrow by being with the murmuring sea, verdant shore,

emerald waters, contemplating the magnificence of azure sky.

This implies that nature is made for human and there is nature

to provides human being’s needs. Most of the poems are set in

the woods, seas, beach, brooks, mountains, valleys and the

like to instill appreciation and reverence for nature. This

further implies that Jose Rizal’s selected poetry adheres to

the tenets of romanticism which are; admiration to nature or

objects of nature, turning back to nature, spontaneous

emotions when reminisced create a vast pool of ides and using

simple language.

Rizal’s poems adheres to that of Wordsworth’s

romanticism theory. He sees God in nature. The action and

situation presented by Rizal’s poem give rise to the feelings

and situation. The poems also show that everytime he is with

nature emotions become spontaneous when reminisced or

recollected in tranquility. The language used is simple

because he is a simple countryside folk. The meaning of the

poem is understood and put across wonderfully because of its

sweetness and simplicity. Its sentiments and delights of

 121

environment is being appreciated by ordinary common people.

Though he is not a nature poet like Wordsworth, his poems

contain elements of romanticism. The researchers found out

that all of the reviewed poems in this study employ nature as

metaphor to real life situation.

In the preservation and conservation of environment, the

environmental conservation measures, corresponding lines, and

environmental concerns are highlighted. The present

environmental issues and concerns become imperative to

preserve the beauty of the surroundings so that the same as

Jose Rizal whenever people are sad, lonely, depress, and wants

to have repose from hustle-bustle of the world they can always

find solace in looking and feeling the vastness and grandeur

of nature followed by a powerful feeling or emotions

recollected in tranquility.

Jose Rizal, based on the reviewed poems, can immediately

appreciate and relate his thoughts to his environment. Thus,

this implies that there is always a romantic gaze at the

environment that channels strong and deep emotions to a

person. The richness of imagination occurs when a person is

silenced in awe to nature.

The researchers also found out that these poems of Jose

Rizal contain ecological values that could awaken learners

 122

and educators. Hence, the integration of these ecological-

friendly poems of Jose Rizal is deemed imperative.

Recommendations

The findings and conclusion of the study led to the

following recommendations:

1. Rizal poems embody the elements of romanticism and

Wordsworth’s romanticism. The researchers would

like to recommend that Rizal’s poetry be integrated

in the different subjects/courses, like Science-

teachers could relate it to lessons on ecosystem;

Social Sciences especially on Economics teachers

could relate the lesson on environmental

preservation as economics tackles about managing

well natural and human resources; and on Character

Education to foster love for environment and

nationalism.

2. Literature readers and teachers must have a close

reading discussion, straight recitation or

interpretative reading for the students to

understand and appreciate the romantic message of

the poems.
 123

3. Teachers should anchor their lessons when

discussing Rizal’s poems to ecological preservation

and conservation so learners would be awaken to act

against environmental degradation.

4. The researchers also want to echo the same words as

of Ladeño (2012), to wit: That issues on

environmental concerns are now trending and always

in the headlines, curriculum planners and designers

should craft lessons or subject matter that would

awaken everyone’s concerns for the environment.

Especially in literature classes, Jose Rizal’s

poems with naturalistic themes should be included

in their lessons/syllabi and relate them to the

present environmental concerns.

5. The teacher should also guide students in unlocking

the meanings of difficult words, discriminate

between implied and explicit meaning, figurative

from literal in the poem so learners will have a

good grasped of the poems’ messages. Teachers, when

teaching, should unlock ideas or unfamiliar words

based on the idea presented by the context of the

situation or best known as Context clues to further

enrich learners’ vocabulary.

 124

6. Teachers should assign learners to read the poems

in advance before discussing them in the class to

have a thorough analysis of their own.

7. The same words from Ladeño (2012), to wit: Nature

is human beings’ comforting habitat. In the middle

of busy and hectic schedules people find time to

turn back to nature and breathe in its coolness and

watch its wonders. Thus the researcher deemed it

proper for the people to start making difference by

initiating, starting from oneself, activities to

restore the environment by espousing advocacies on

environmental preservation and conservation.

8. The researchers would like to recommend that those

researchers who want to embark to same kind of

research endeavor must first take a lesson or

course on Literary Criticism so they will have a

good foundation in analyzing certain literary text

anchored on their study.

9. The researchers recommended that Literary Criticism

be taught to BEED (Bachelor in Elementary

Education) as it dwells on the theories and methods

applied in the critical appreciation of literature

as an art form, especially the Theory of

Romanticism, so they may be able to analyze and

 125

have a close reading to every literary text

especially that of Jose Rizal. They must be taught

of Literary Criticism because as the basic

foundation of children’s knowledge they have the

duty and liability to instill unto them love for

the environment and country by streamlining poems

anchored to environmental preservation and to that

of Jose Rizal.

10. The researchers recommended that in doing an

analysis or interpretation the teacher or

researcher use either Wordsworth’s or Shih Yeh Chih

romanticism to further expound the poems messages

about caring the environment.

11. A similar study using Wordsworth’s

Romanticism, Tenets of romanticism, and

Ecocriticism streamlining poems from different

Filipino writers is recommended to increase the

availability of literature and resources.

12. Since only five poems were included in this

study, the researchers recommended that future

researchers who wants to embark to same study look

for other undiscovered or those not-so-famous poems

of Jose Rizal especially those containing

naturalistic themes.
 126

13. The researchers recommended that research

focusing on the writings of Jose Rizal especially

those that speak of nature be conducted to further

call for unity in the present crises which is

environmental degradation.

14. Ecocriticism is a theory which calls for

environmental preservation, hence, it is

recommended to have a research using the theory to

further enlighten human beings of the horrific

challenges ahead to preserve the environment.

15. A research about Jose Rizal’s nationalistic

poems is hereby recommended to further instill

nationalism, patrimony and unity among the

Filipinos.

16. The researchers recommended that a research

focusing on the effectiveness of integration in the

classroom of Rizal’s eco-friendly poems be

conducted.

17. A research about methods of teachers in

inculcating love for environment and nationalism is

recommended.

18. Further research should be conducted that

looks on nature representations and ecological

 127

values as lifted from the poems or writings of other

Filipinos.
 128

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