21st CENTURY LITERATURE FROM THE PHILIPPINES AND THE WORLD

LEARNING MODULE 4:
Texts and Authors from Latin America

Quarter: 2 Week: 4
Name:
Grade and Section: Score:
Teacher: Date:

Learning Competencies
Write a close analysis and critical interpretation of literary texts applying a reading
approach and doing an adaptation of these; thus, require the learner the ability
to identify representative texts and authors from Asia, Europe, Africa, Latin
America and North America. (EN12Lit-IIa-22)

Objectives:
• identify the literary works of the authors from Latin America;
• recognize the literary devices used in the poem; and
• write a close analysis of a poem using literary devices.

Let’s Recall:
What do you know about the following, if you do not know anything about, take
a good guess and share your findings to the class.
1. Magic realism
2. Diaspora Literature
3. Aztec and Mayan Civilizations
4. Christopher Columbus
5. Modernism

Let’s Understand

Latin American Writers

1. Pablo Neruda
He is considered as one of the pillars of Latin American poetry as he had won the Nobel Prize
for Literature in 1971. His first poem is “Ëntusiasmo y Perseverancia,” which was published
in the daily La Mañana when he was 13 years old. Some of his famous poems are “Tonight I
Can Write the Saddest Lines,” “If You Forget Me,” “Walking Around,” “Cat’s Dream,” “A Song
of Despair,” and “I Do Not Love You Except Because I Love You.”
Sample analysis of the poem, “I Do Not Love You Except Because I Love You” written by
Pablo Neruda.
 I DO NOT LOVE YOU EXCEPT BECAUSE I LOVE YOU

1 I do not love you except because I love you;

2 I go from loving to not loving you,
3 From waiting to not waiting for you
4 My heart moves from cold to fire.

5 I love you only because it's you the one I love;

6 I hate you deeply, and hating you
7 Bend to you, and the measure of my changing love for you
8 Is that I do not see you but love you blindly.

9 Maybe January light will consume

10 My heart with its cruel
11 Ray, stealing my key to true calm.

12 In this part of the story I am the one who

13 Dies, the only one and I will die of love because I love you.
14 Because I love you, Love, in fire and blood

The theme of this poem is the pain and confusion of falling in love. The poem briefly explains how
hard it isto fall in love and how this love hurts the lover. The first stanza of the poem starts with
the description of the love the narrator has for his beloved. He loves her from the very core of his
heart, but he is not being loved by her in return. In the second stanza, the narrator is analyzing
the reason for why he loves her so deeply. But he is just unable to find out the reason. He just
knows that he is in love with her; this love is true and emerges from the core of his heart. In the
next stanza, the poet is thinking about the approaching winter season. The winters are going to
be harsh upon him when everything will freeze, and the rays of sun, which represent hope, will
not bring hope for him. In the last stanza, the narrator is deeply sad since all his hopes seem
shattered. He knows that she will never come back, no matter how much he loves her.
Literary devices present:
I. SYMBOLISM (a literary device that uses symbols, be they words, people, marks
locations, or abstract ideas to represent something beyond the literal meaning).
• This literary device can be seen in Line 14 “Because I love you, Love, in fire and
blood.” The last line symbolizes his deep and passionate feelings for his beloved.
II. IMAGERY (a literary device that includes figurative and metaphorical language to
improve the reader's experience through their senses.
• This literary device can be seen in Line 4 “My heart moves from cold to fire.” It is
used to compare how his feelings vary from hate to love.
III. PARADOX (is the juxtaposition of a set of seemingly contradictory concepts that reveal
a hidden and/or unexpected truth)
 • This literary device can be seen in Lines 5 and 6. “I love you only because it’s you
the one I love; I hate you deeply and hating you”. Love and hate coexist although
the feelings are thought to be complete opposite.
Other Literary Devices
1. Simile is an explicit comparison between two things by using words such as like, a, than,
appear, or seems.
Example: A sip of Mrs. Cook’s coffee is like a punch in the stomach.
2. Metaphor makes a comparison between two unlike things, but does so implicitly, without
words such as like or as.
Example: Life is a brief candle.
3. Personification is the attribution of human characteristics to nonhuman things.
Example: Trees scream in the raging wind.
4. Allusion is a brief reference to a person, place, thing, event, or idea in history or literature.
Example: My mom has a Spartan workout routine.
2. Humberto Ak’abal

He was a Guatemalan poet, born in the region of Momostenango in 1952. His Mayan ancestry
is reflected in his work and ideology. Ak’abal’s work is organic and simple, includinga lot of
natural elements form his surroundings and his cultural beliefs. The following poem is direct
and short as is his usual style, and it reveals the difficult history of colonization amongst
Mayan and indigenous communities and their continuous struggles.
Two Tears
When I was born
they put two tears
in my eyes
so that I could see

the amount of pain in my people.

Let’s Apply
Directions: Match the following lines taken from Latin American Poems and
their literary devices.

A
1. My language was born among the trees andtastes like the earth.
- The ancient Song of My Blood

2. The Shadows along the Walls were blackphantoms.

- Water and Fire

3. Death always at my SideI listen to what it says And only hear

myself.

4. After you, only the scream of the great Florentinewent through my bones.
- Alexandrine Verses
5. There are Sulphur-colored birds, and hideous intestines hanging over the doors of houses
that Ihate.
- Walking Around

A. Allusion B. Simile C. Imagery D. Apostrophe E. Metaphor

Let’s Analyze
Direction: Analyze each statement and identify the literary device
shown ineach.

. The wind howled its mighty objection.

a.1Personification b. Metaphor c. Simile d. Imagery

2. All the world is a stage.

a. Personification b. Metaphor c. Simile d. Imagery

3. The sun was like a yellow marble in the sky.

a. Personification b. Metaphor c. Simile d. Imagery

4. The sleeping pill knocked me out.

a. Personification b. Metaphor c. Simile d. Imagery

5. The fresh and juicy orange is very cold and sweet.

a. Personification b. Metaphor c. Simile d. Imagery

Let’s Try
Direction: Read the poem below by Pablo Neruda. Answer the
comprehensions that follow.

DON’T GO FAR
OFF
By Pablo Neruda

1 Don't go far off, not even for a day, because --

2 because -- I don't know how to say it: a day is
long3 and I will be waiting for you, as in an
empty station
4 when the trains are parked off somewhere else, asleep.
5 Don't leave me, even for an hour, because
6 then the little drops of anguish will all run together
7 the smoke that roams looking for a home will drift
8 into me, choking my lost heart.

9 Oh, may your silhouette never dissolve on the

beach; 10 may your eyelids never flutter into the
empty distance.11 Don't leave me for a second, my
dearest,

12 because in that moment you'll have gone

so far13 I'll wander mazily over all the earth,
asking,
14 Will you come back? Will you leave me here, dying?
1. Which line is a representation of how the speaker waits aimlessly for his or her lover
at home, how the speaker feels lost without his or her lover, and how he or she spends
every minute awaiting his or her return?
a. lines 1 and 2 c. lines 5 and 6
b. lines 3 and 4 d. lines 7 and 8
2. What imagery is cited from this line “a day is long, and I will be waiting for you, as in
an empty station when the trains are parked off somewhere else, asleep”?
a. Olfactory-taste c. Tactile-touch
b. Visual-see d. Auditory-hear
3. What literary device is used from this line “the smoke that roams looking for a home
will drift into me, choking my lost heart”?
a. metaphor c. hyperbole
b. simile d. personification
4. Which lines in the poem the speaker is trying to get across if his / her loved one leaves
for an hour then the little drops of emotional pain will all gather up and soon become
a big puddle of pain?
a. lines 4 and 5 c. lines 5 and 6
b. lines 3 and 4 d. lines 6 and 7
5. Which stanza perfectly portrays the dependency and the fear brought on by love?
a. stanza 1 c. stanza 3
b. stanza 2 d. stanza 4

Let’s Create
Direction: Read the Latin American poem on the next page entitled
“DECALOGUE OF THE ARTIST”. Perform the tasks as directed.

Goal: Write a close analysis of a Latin American poem.

Role: You are a literary critic.
Audience: Your audiences are the senior high school students at your school.
Situation: You are the president of a Journalism Club in your school. You are given the
task to read a poem by Gabriela Mistral (Please see poem below) and to create a close
analysis about it.
Product: A close analysis a poem written by Gabriela Mistral entitled “DECALOGUE
OF THE ARTIST”.
Performance: Answer the following questions:
1. Who is the author of the poem?
2. Enumerate three words from the poem that you are unfamiliar with. Use a dictionary
to look up their meanings.
3. Identify 3 literary devices that can be found in the poem found on the next page by
writing down the number of line/s.
4. How does Gabriela Mistral view the idea of beauty? How would you compare this with
your own view?
5. Which word or phrase in the poem stands out to you? Why
 Decalogue Of the Artist
Translated by Doris Dana

1 You shall love beauty, which is the shadow of God over the Universe.
2 There is no godless art. Although you love not the Creator, you shall bear witness
to Him creating His likeness.
3 You shall create beauty not to excite the senses but to give sustenance to the soul.
4 You shall never use beauty as a pretext for luxury and vanity but as a spiritual
devotion.
5 You shall not seek beauty at carnival or fair or offer your work there, for beauty is
virginal and is not to be found at carnival or fair.
6 Beauty shall rise from your heart in song, and you shall be the first to be purified.
7 The beauty you create shall be known as compassion and shall console the hearts
of men.
8 You shall bring forth your work as a mother brings forth her child: out of the blood
of your heart.
9 Beauty shall not be an opiate that puts you to sleep but a strong wine that fires you
to action, for if you fail to be a true man or a true woman, you will fail to be an artist.
10 Each act of creation shall leave you humble, for it is never as great as your dream
and always inferior to that most marvelous dream of God which is Nature.