Title Author Adapted Origin Under

Lesson 5 Christine F. Godinez- --- --- Literary Forms in

Ortega Philippine
Literature
Tungkung Langit and Anonymous F. Landa Jocano Western Visayas Pre-Colonial
Alunsina Literature
May Bagyo Ma’t May Anonymous Rolando S. Tinio --- Literature Under
Rilim (Though It Is Spanish
Stormy And Dark) Colonialism
Be Beautiful, Noble, Jose Garcia Villa --- National Capital Literature Under
Like The Antique Ant Region US Colonialism
Lament For The Edith L. Tiempo --- Cagayan Valley Literature Under
Littlest Fellow The Republic
Legend of the J. Neil Garcia --- National Capital Literature After
Seafoam Region EDSA
Moonlight on Manila Fernando M. Maramag --- Cagayan Valley Philippine Literary
Bay Canon
Soledad Angela Manalang- --- Central Luzon Philippine Literary
Gloria Canon
Six PM Nick Joaquin --- National Capital National Artist:
Region Nick Joaquin
Yo Te Quero Verde Nick Joaquin --- National Capital National Artist:
Region Nick Joaquin
Of Fish, Flies, Dogs Timothy R. Montes --- Eastern Visayas 21st Century Ph
and Women Literature: Short
Story
st
There Was This Really Carla M. Pacis --- National Capital 21 Century Ph
Fat Girl Region Literature: YA
Fiction
The Ascension of Our Mia Tijam --- National Capital 21st Century Ph
Lady Boy Region Literature:
Speculative Fiction
 LESSON 5 – Literary Forms in the Philippines
By: Christine F. Godinez-Ortega

Philippine Literature evolved side by side with the country’s history, can be appreciated from:
a. Pre-colonial – cultural tradition
b. Socio-political histories of its colonial & contemporary traditions.
Reasons for unfamiliarity of the Filipinos with his indigenous literature:
1. The country was discovered only in 1521
2. Colonialists blot out the memory of the oral past
Change of attitude among the new breed of Filipinos concerned about the Filipino identity:
1. Filipino writers, artists & journalists tried their best to correct & recognized the country’s wealth of ethnic traditions &
disseminating to the public.
2. The rousing of nationalistic pride in 1960’s and 70’s also helped bring about the change of attitude.

Periods in Philippine History

 PRE-COLONIAL TIMES
Pre colonial inhabitants of our islands showcase a rich past through:
1. FOLK SPEECHES
 Bugtong
 Proverbs – sayings that give values
o Sawikain – idioms
o Salawikain – sayings or kasabihan (ex: Nasa Diyos ang awa nasa tao ang gawa)
2. FOLK SONGS – a form of folk lyric which expresses the hopes & aspirations of the people’s lifestyles as well
as their loves.
Ex:
 Tulang Pambata – Tagalog
 Harana – Cebuano
 Duplo – Popular games during wake
3. FOLK NARRATIVE
 Epics and Folk Tales are varied
 Exotic
 Magical Legends – Alamat
 Fables – about animals that teach moral lesson. Also called Pabula.
Epics – readings around supernatural events or heroic deeds; beliefs & customs ideals of a community;
These are sung or chanted to the accompaniment of INDIGENOUS musical instruments & dancing
performed during HARVESTS, WEDDINGS or FUNERALS by chanters.

 SPANISH COLONIAL TRADITION

Spain contributed much in the shaping and recording of our literature. Religion & institutions that represented their
civilization enriched the languages in the lowlands, introduced theater which we come to know as Komedya,
Senakulo, Sarswela, Playlets & Drama
They also brought Liberal Ideas & an Internationalism that our own Filipino intellectuals & writers understood the
meaning of liberty & freedom.
Literature in this period may be classified as:
o Religious Prose & Poetry
o Secular Prose & Poetry
 One form of Religious Lyrics is the meditative verses like The Dalit appended to novenas & catechisms.
 Religious Poetry includes the Pasyon
 Prose Narratives are written proper decorum- Urbana at Feliza by Modesto de Castro
 Secular Lyrics followed the conventions of romantic traditions: the leading poets were Jose Corazon de Jesus
(Huseng Sisiw) & Francisco Balagtas.
 Secular Poetry is the metrical romance Awit & Korido in Tagalog.
o Ex of Awit: Ibong Adarna & Florante
o Illustrados – Filipino intellectuals educated in Europe, called for reforms like Jose Rizal’s Noli Me
Tangere & El Filibusterismo, these writings helped in the Philippines revolution & so the downfall of
Spanish Regime
 THE AMERICAN COLONIAL PERIOD
New literary forms such as Free Verse, the Modern Short Story & the Critical Essay were introduced.
English as the medium of instruction in all schools & with literary modernism cultivated consciousness of craft
 National Artist for Literature – Jose Garcia Villa used Free Verse – Art for Art’s Sake
 Writings in native languages bloomed thru the weekly outlets of Liwayway & Bisaya.
 Alejandro Abadilla advocated modernism in poetry &
 influenced young poets who wrote Modern Verses like
o Virgilio Almario,
o Pedro Ricarte &
o Rolando Tinio
 The essay in English became a potent medium from the 1920’s to the present.

 CONTEMPORARY PERIOD
Philippine Literature in various languages continues & Filipino writers continue to write Poetry, Short Stories,
Novellas, Novels & Essays. They become more conscious of his art with the Proliferation of Workshops via Mass
Media & the Internet. Literary awards such as the Don Carlo Planca, Philippine Free Press, Philippine Graphic
encourage them to compete & hope that his creative efforts will be rewarded.

Tungkung Langit and Alunsina

By: Anonymous
Adapted By: F. Landa Jocano

Characters:
 Tungkung Langit – Loving, Hardworking
 Alunsina – Lazy, Jealous, Selfish, Long Jet-Black Hair

In the beginning everything was shapeless and formless. The earth, the sky, the sea, and the air were almost
mixed up.
They were married and made their home in the highest part of heaven
She sat at the window all day long and doing nothing. Sometimes she would leave her home, sit down by a pool
near the door and comb her long, jet-black hair all day long.
One day Tungkung Langit told his wife that he would be away for some time. (arrange everything in the world)
When he was gone Alunsina set the breeze to spy on Tungkung Langit
Tungkung Langit found out and he became very angry.
He told her that it was ungodly of her to be jealous since there were no other gods in the world except the two of
them.
In his anger, Tungkung Langit drove his wife away
Tungkung Langit felt very lonely
For months Tungkung Langit was in utter desolation.
In desperation, he decided to do something to forget his sorrows
One day while sailing across the regions of the clouds, a thought came to him. He would make the sea and earth,
and it suddenly appeared.
He came down to earth and planted the ground with trees and flowers.
Then he scattered his wife’s jewelries in the sky, hoping that Alunsina would be induced to return home.
o Neclace > Stars
o Comb > Moon
o Crown > Sun
However, she did not come back.
Until now, some elders of Panay say Tungkung Langit lives alone in his palace in the skies.
He would cry out his pent-up and his tears would fall upon on earth.
When it thunders hard, it’s sobbing, calling for his wife to come back.
 May Bagyo Ma’t May Rilim
(Though It Is Stormy and Dark)
By: Anonymous
Adapted By: Rolando S. Tinio
-young poet who wrote Modern Verses
Faith
Book: Bible

Be Beautiful, Noble, Like The Antique Ant

By: Jose Garcia Villa
-used Free Verse
Characteristics of the Ant
 Noble
 Beautiful
 Antique
 Gracious
 Passionate
 Perfection
 Essential
 Fierce
 Traceless
 Speak with Moderation
 Flowing

Lament for the Littlest Fellow

By: Edith L. Tiempo

Characters
 Wife
 Husband
 Child – Marmoset
Vocabulary
 Lament – deep sorrow
 Truant - Naughty

The littlest fellow was a marmoset (child)

He held the bars (crib) and blinked his old man’s eyes
You said he knew us, and took my arms and set
My fingers around the bars, with coaxing mimicries
Of squek and twitter. “Now he thinks you are Another marmoset in a cage”.
A proud denial (Mother)
Set you to laughing, shutting back a question far
Into my mind, something enormous and final.
The question was unasked but there is an answer.
Sometimes in your sleeping face upon the pillow (nakadapa)
I would catch our own little truant (naughyt) unaware;
He had fled from our pain and the dark room of our rage,
But I would snatch him back from yesterday (dead) and tomorrow (successful)
You wake (husband) and I bruise my hands on the living cage.
 Legend of the Seafoam
- Legend (Folk Narrative)
By: J. Neil Garcia
Characters
 Tungkung Langit - Omnipotent
 Alunisna – Seafoam
Vocabulary
 Mist – tiny droplets
 Shrouding – Cover
 Languidly – Weak
 Churned – Container
 Lilting – Cheerful
 Consolation – Comfort
 Bequeath – Give
 Gilt – Cover
 Grief – Sadness
 Lucent- Glowing
 Wielded – To Hold
 Cowered – Move back
 Massiveness – Large
 Banish – force to leave


In the beginning there was always mist.

Shrouding and blurring the edges of things
Untouched by clovenness, water and sky
Knew nothing of horizons; land and air
Lay languidly caught in the grip of shared
Rootlessness and sleep. In the beginning, the void stirred awake from itself, remembering all it could of its
Mist-borne soul as it began to dream or difference.
Out of the wish two beings churned loose and arose.
Tungkung Langit omnipotent Lord of the sky
And his wife Alunsina . She was lilting consolation as he was her all, at sunrise, he returned from his labors
at creation to find her singing beside a pond which had been her desire turned to water.
He loved her enough to bequeath her this one power: A gilt of crystal grief and pain that grew lucent in her
breast and flowed shimmering to her lips.
As she sang, she strummed the water’s anxious skin with her fingers and he felt the cool touch of ripples
spreading faintly from his brow to his mind’s very bottom
But still
…………… continue to BOOK

Moonlight on Manila Bay

- Sonnets
By: Fernando M. Maramag
Around 7 PM
July 04, 1946 (Freedom of the Philippines from colonization)
Description:
 Light Serene - between bright and dim light
 Ethereal Glory - heavenly
 Effulgent (brilliance) on each Cresting waves
  Silver touches of the moonlight lave(Lavender)
 Now Gay (masigla) Now Gently (mahinahon)

A light serene, ethereal glory rests,

Its beams effulgent on each cresting wave
The silver touches of the moonlight lave
The deep’s bare bosom that the breeze molests;
While lingering whispers deepen as the wavy crests
Roll with weird rhythm, now gay now gently grave
And floods of lambent light appear the sea to pave
All cast a spell that heeds not time’s behests
Not always such the scene; the din of light
Has swelled the murmur of the Peaceful air;
Here east (Spain) and west (America) have oft displayed their might ;
Dark bottle clouds have dimmed this scene so fair;
Here bold Olympia (America Won), one historic night
Presaging (feeling of what is going to happen in the future) freedom, claimed a people’s care

Soledad
- Sonnets
By: Angela Manalang- Gloria

Soledad > Solitude – a state or situation in which you are alone usually because you want to be

Characters
 Soledad
o She was condemned
o Engaged with pre-marital sex
o Wealthy – to understand how one carved from pride
 Man
o Firebrand in (Aggressive)
o Low economic status

Literary Canon
Authoritative list as of the works of an author
Basis for judgement, standard criterion
Books of the bible officially recognized by the church.

Six PM
By: Nick Joaquin
On his way to go home
Daydream about to go to
o Atlantis (deep in the ocean)
o Caribbean (Cuba, South America)
o Cathay (Alternative name for China)
He’s on the Philippines
Sinai (Middle East)
 Moses received the 10 commandments of God
Trouvere (write poets) at night, Grammarian (English Teacher) in the morning
Afternoon my ivory tower falls – shut off for a time from the rowdy business
Conquistador tonight, clock puncher tomorrow

Vocabulary
 Trouvere - write poets
 Grammarian – english teacher
  Ruefully Architecting - checking
 Atlantis – deep in the ocean
 Caribbean - Cuba
 Cathay – alternative name of China
 Apocalypse - Revelation
 Conquistador - conqueror

Yo Te Quero Verde
By: Nick Joaquin
Red
o Assaults
o Rainfire
o Blood
o Excites
o Devours
o Our terror aloud
o Cried out, of death
White
o Wisdom, scourge (purify) of God
o Insanity (severe mental illness
o Nudeness
o Pain, her blinding desserts
o Noon, her shroud
o Age
Blue
o Thought
o Despair
o Ink-stain
o Cold Vague melancholy
o Eyes retain of Voyages (Traavel)
o Mold
Green
o In the night
o Luxurian water
o Jewelled thick with island
o Moss-grown wells, raw fruits
o Slopes
o Hung with curtains

Eden > Paradise