ACTIVITY SHEET IN 21ST CENTURY LITERATURE FROM THE PHILIPPINES AND

THE WORLD (GRADE 12)

QUARTER 1 - WEEK 4 (OCTOBER 3-7, 2022)

LESSON 4: LITERARY CRITICISMS

Activity# 1 (Written Work )

Name: HUERTAS, GERALDINE M.             Strand and Section: STEM 12 – AA
CYPRUS
Date/ Week No.: NOVEMBER 11, 2022 WEEK 4           Score: /30

The Formalist Approach

Analysis of “Bonsai” by Edith Tiempo

Edith Tiempo is one of the finest Filipino writers in English. She is a National Artist for
Literature, poet, fictionist, teacher, and literary critic. The poem "Bonsai" starts with an object
that is too wide, therefore, the character "I" wants to fold it.
The theme of this poem is "Love that is valuable and can be inherited". The bonsai tree which
is identical to a tree with a small size indicates that no matter how small the memory, it still
looks valuable.

The mood of the poem is described as love and loyalty. The figurative language of
"Bonsai" in the third stanza line 4 to 5 is a metaphor. "Love" is not scaled down to a cupped
hand but rather to be inherited. The god does not have bright teeth rather the god is smiling at
what the readers do.

The first stanza has free verse, repetition, enjambment, and alliteration. The word "once" is
repeated twice (lines 2 and 3) in the same stanza. The opposite of the end-stop line does not
pause at the end of a line. "Bonsai" has four stanzas which are stanza 1, consists of six-line and
are called Sestet with blank verse, it does not have rhyme but has a metrical form. The poem is
an appreciation for an object that may be underappreciated.