Rizal: Poet and Patriot

Jhuster Dayandante and Iane Tabor

Buddhadeba Bose
In our time there is a feeling that a
poet's task is loaded with difficulties.
The world has grown old, freshness is
gone from nature; words like beauty
and truth have been reduced to
cliches. Man, though wearied by
experience, seems to be drifting away
from the intuitive to the analytical
type of knowledge—in other words,
from poetry to science.
This has not
always been so.
The world has known happier times—when
a poet, instead of being exhausted by self-
consciousness, was able to express
himself directly, spontaneously, and with
an immediately captivating vigor. And of
such a poet, a poet who carried a whole
nation along with him, and did this with an
unpremeditated ease, José Rizal is a
splendid example.
For him, everything seems to have
been possible. He saw no hostility between
poetry and science, between
the vocation of a dreamer and
that of a man of action.
He has only lived for thirty-five
years and has been darkened
by persecution. To think of a life
like Rizal's is to feel that, despite
the monstrosities of our
century, man still deserves to
survive on this planet.
Mi Último Adiós
Giving poignancy to Rizal's death,
this poem of seventy lines, bold in
utterance and effective in
organization has contrasted with
the frightful anguish of Goya or
Dostoevsky and has shown
innocence and spontaneity in the
face of death.
Rizal as a
Romanticist
Romanticism was a political
phenomenon—its melancholy having
been hand-in-hand with an ardent
desire to abolish tranny and
establish a world-order founded on
love and justice. Rizal, just like Byron
and Pushkin, had the gift of
transmitting the living moment into
verse and wrote poems which went
straight to the hearts of men.
Asian Literary Romanticism,
Nationalism, and Patriotism
Asian literary romanticism allied itself with an incipient nationalist spirit,
acquiring a peculiar intensity compared to European countries because
Asian nationalism was also a revolt against foreign domination
Rizal's nationalism was not to be feared, but instead it was the natural love
for one's home and one's people—a feeling which finds admirable
expression in poetry.
It is instead patriotism which dominates Rizal's poetic theme—being an
amalgam of one's childhood memories, love for family and friends, and the
joy one has. This feeling is not against anybody else, but is simply an
assertion of one's birthright.
Tagore & Like Rabindranath Tagore of India, Rizal

Rizal defended his people before the might and

haughtiness of the foreign rules, and at
home urged on them to throw away their
sloth and ignorance.

Another point of contention is their

international spirit—Rizal's travels showing
that he was deeply aware of the basic unity
of the human race and was eager to make
his beloved motherland part of the modern
world.
Tagore & Rizal
However, whereas Tagore wrote in his native
Bengali, Rizal wrote in Spanish, a foreign tongue. It
was necessary for Rizal that his words should be
read by the Spaniards.
Yet some of Rizal's poems and his last unfinished
novel was written in Tagalog. This is evidence of
Rizal's foresight and intuitive wisdom for history
shows that vital literature in any country must be
rooted in the mother-tongue. Rizal must have
seen the embodiment of all that he stood for was
the mother-tongue of the Filipinos.