Jose Garcia Villa (August 5, 1908 – February 7, 1997)

- A Filipino poet, literary critic, short story writer, and painter

- He was considered as a powerful literary influence in the Philippines throughout much of
the 20th century
- National Artist of the Philippines for Literature (1973)
- Used the penname Doveglion
Early Life
- born on August 5, 1908, in Manila’s Singalong district
- His parents were Simeon Villa, and Guia Garcia
- Graduated from the UP Integrated School, and the UP High School (1925)
- enrolled in the University of the Philippines

Writing Career
- Villa’s tart poetic style was considered too aggressive at that time
- He published ‘Man Songs’ in 1929
- He won Best Story of the Year from Philippine Free Press magazine for ‘Mir-I-Nisa’
- After the publication of his ‘Footnote to Youth’ in 1933, he switched from writing prose to
poetry
- Introduced a new rhyme scheme called ‘reverse consonance’ during the release of ‘Have
Come, Am Here’ in 1942

Writing Style

- Was known as the comma poet for his extensive use of punctuation marks – especially
commas
- He advised his students not to read any form of fiction lest their poems become
“contaminated with narrative elements” insisting that poetry is written with words, not
ideas”

Notable Works

- Footnote to Youth
- The Anchored Angel
- The Emperor’s New Sonnet
“In, my, undream, of, death,
I, unspoken, the, Word.
Since, nobody, had, dared,
With, my, own, breath,
I, broke, the, chord! ”