SH1903
The Filipino Poetry The lines below from "The Gods We Worship Live Next
I. Elements of Poetry
1. Line
It is a subdivision of a poem that contains a group of
words arranged into a row. Lines could be arranged to have
a certain number of syllables or a certain number of stresses.
It could also be arranged so that it rhymes, whether it is of
equal length or not.
2. Stanza
It is the equivalent of the paragraph in prosaic writing. A
stanza is a group of lines within a poem. Like lines, there is
no set length to a stanza or a rule that all stanzas within a
poem need to be the same length. However:
 two-line stanzas are couplets
 three-lines, tercets
 four-lines, quatrains
Whether regular or not, the visual effect and, sometimes,
the aural effect is one of uniting the sense of the stanza into
one group, so poets can either let their sentences fit neatly
within these groups, or create flow and tension by enjambing
across the stanza breaks.
3. Rhyme and Rhyme Scheme
Rhyme refers to the repetition of the end-sounds of
words. On the other hand, rhyme scheme is the way a poem's
rhymes are arranged. Generally, rhyme schemes are marked
using the ascending letters of the alphabet.
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Door" by Bienvenido Santos follow an A-B-B-A rhyme
scheme.
"The gods we worship live next door. They're brown
and how easily they catch cold sneezing
too late into their sleeves and brandishing
their arms in air, Fear grips us when they frown…"
4. Rhythm and Meter
Rhythm is the term used to refer to the recurrence of
stressed and unstressed sounds in poetry. Poets rely heavily
on rhythm to express meaning and convey feeling. Caesura
is a strong pause within a line of poetry that contributes to
the rhythm of the line. When a line has a pause at its end, it
is called an end-stopped line. Such pauses reflect normal
speech patterns and are often marked by punctuation. A line
that ends without a pause and continues into the next line for
its meaning is called a run-on line or enjambment.
Meter is a system of describing what we can measure
about the audible features of a poem. In formal poetry, there
are systems used to structure meters in terms of the number
of syllables (syllabic meter), the duration of syllables
(quantitative meter), the number of stressed syllables
(accentual meter), and combinations of the above.
5. Figurative Language
As opposed to literal language, or the use of words and
phrases to convey their typical meaning, figurative language
uses the words or phrases to intentionally move away from
their standard meaning. There are too many to list, but they
can be classified into the following categories:
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Category Example of the Americans. During the American Colonial Period,

simile Filipinos learned not only the English language but also the
metaphor poetic styles of these new sets of colonialists, namely free verse
Figures of resemblance personification and new criticism.
metonymy Today, old poetic forms are still read and used by many, but
synecdoche there are a few that evolved over time.
hyperbole 1. Spoken Word Poetry (Alfonso & Fontanilla, 2014)
litotes Spoken word poetry is a new trend in the Philippines. It
Figures of emphasis or rhetorical question was introduced in 2005 by the FM radio station Jam 88.3
understatement paradox through its show "Bigkas Pilipinas" but was formally
oxymoron established in 2013 through the Facebook community
irony "Speak! Philippines".
alliteration Also known as slam poetry, spoken word poetry is
repetition written on a page but is meant for onstage performance.
Figures of sound
anaphora Because it is performed, spoken word poetry emphasizes the
onomatopoeia use of rhythm, improvisation, free association, rhymes,
Verbal games and pun wordplay, and slang.
gymnastics anagram Its roots can be traced to Ancient Greece in the form of
malapropism Greek lyric. However, its function could be likened to the
Errors periphrasis form of expression used by the African-American civil rights
spoonerism movement for their socio-political discourse. This nature of
spoken word poetry implies that this form could not only be
II. Filipino Poetry Forms in the 21st Century used as a means of entertainment or self-expression but also
Poetry has been part of our culture ever since pre-Hispanic as an avenue for raising awareness about current social
times in the forms of awit, bugtong, epiko, and sawikain. issues.
However, the arrival of the Spanish affected the growth of these
forms as friars deemed them blasphemous because of the 2. Textula/Textanaga
presence of supernatural creatures. The Spanish clergy set out to It traces its origins to the traditional Tagalog form of
replace the old heroes and gods with Jesus Christ and the saints, poetry called tanaga, which consists of four (4) lines with
and this resulted to the religious nature of the poetry in that seven (7) syllables each.
period. It could follow the following rhyme schemes:
But despite this effort, the traditional Philippine poetry never  Basic (AAAA)
truly went away. These same traditions evolved until the arrival  Enclosed or inipit (ABBA)
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 Alternate or salitan (ABAB)
 Sunuran (AABB)
Textula employs communication technology in sharing,
and the creation of this poetic form has been largely
attributed to Frank G. Rivera.
3. Rap Battle
Pioneered by the FlipTop Battle League in 2010, this rap
battle promotes Filipino hip hop and is heavily influenced by
the original rap battle leagues founded in the United States,
Canada, and United Kingdom.
A FlipTop battle consists of three (3) rounds with a time
limit for each contender (emcee) set by the referee. An odd
number of judges are selected to judge the battle to prevent
draws. Written or non-written lines are allowed. Both sides
can also bring props for the event. Choking in any rounds
increases the chance of losing the battle. The winner is
determined by the decision of the judges. The criteria for
judging are the usage of words, audience impact, delivery,
and rapping style (Yuson, 2015).
Because of FlipTop, the celebration of Linggo ng Wika
has never been the same, as there were some universities and
secondary schools in different parts of the country included
this rap battle in their roster of competitions (Angeles, 2014).
Some academics have compared FlipTop to Balagtasan
because the two (2) contain both verbal jousts and employs
rhyme and meter in their bars or verses against their
opponent, but there are some disputes whether the former
can be called as "Modern-day Balagtasan".
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SH1903
III. Guidelines in Poetry Analysis (Condliffe, 2018)
Poetry analysis is the process of investigating a poem's form,
content, and history in an informed way, to heighten one's own
and others' understanding and appreciation of the work. (- Do;
 - Don’t)
1. Read the poem aloud
Poetry is meant to be read aloud, so reading it quietly
will not give you a complete experience of a poem. When
poets compose poems, they engage in wordplay and utilize
rhymes and rhythms that affect the meaning of the poem.
 Read the poem aloud several times. Try to figure out
the most effective way to perform it, or the one with
the least stumbles.
 Assume you can understand the rhythm and
wordplay by only looking at it.
2. Unpack what the poem is about
Poems generally convey a narrative or describe feelings
or objects. There will be exceptions to this rule, but it is
unlikely that you will be presented with a poem that hard
during an assessment. Your job as a critic is to try and
understand what the poem is about.
 Look for pronouns and proper nouns. These will tell
you the various characters in the poem. "I' will
always represent the persona - the figure whose
perspective is being depicted.
 Follow the punctuation. Just because poems use
enjambment and have unusual forms, doesn't mean
they don’t adhere to grammatical rules. Break the
stanza/s into sentences. If you're confused, locate the
full stops and read the lines as single sentences.
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 Look for recurring images or symbols, which are
called motifs. Motifs are often directly related to the
meaning of a poem and can give important clues as
to what the poet is trying to convey.
3. Pay attention to the rhythm
Poems have rhythm. One of the traditional differences
between regular literature and poetry is the use of rhythm
and meter. Contemporary poetry sometimes moves away
from the traditional conventions of meter, but largely meter
plays an important role in the poetry you will study.
We don't focus on rhythm to check if the poet has
adhered to the natural rhythm of the English language.
Rather, we use it to see when the poet breaks with the rhythm
they have set themselves. These deviations from the rhythm
indicate important ideas in the poem. When you find a
change in the rhythm, look at the ideas or images being
presented and talk about them.
 Feel stressed if you cannot remember the different
names for the various rhythms. Don't worry if you
5. Look for techniques
cannot identify all the rhythms of a poem or even the
rhythms of a line.
 Try to discuss the meaning you find in rhythm. An
attempt to discuss rhythm, even if you cannot
remember the terminology, will gain you insights
about the piece.
6. Consider the poetic form
4. Look for enjambment
Enjambment is an oft-cited but regularly misunderstood
technique. When poetry is enjambed, one line seems to spill
over into the next line because it is not capped by
punctuation.
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SH1903
Enjambment gives the appearance of the line flowing
onto the next line. When we read it, we hear otherwise as we
then to pause - even if only for a fraction of a second -
between lines. This contradiction is known as the "rejet" -
the tension between fragmentation or pause and the
appearance of flow. This technique is used to draw attention
to the meaning, object, or person in the lines. This often
involves contradiction or contrast with the things that follow
or precede it.
 Assume that enjambment is there for appearance
only. It is not. It is an aural technique. Listen to what
it does to the lines of the poem.
 Discuss what the enjambment draws attention to. Is
it foregrounding the object in the first line or the
second line? Is it contrasting two (2) ideas over two
(2) lines? Or is it representing the relationship
between people?
You need to be able to discuss how a composer has
created meaning in their poem. This requires you to talk
about the techniques they have used to develop meaning.
You need to look out for common literary techniques and
devices (e.g., simile, metaphor, motifs, repetition, rhyme)
and try to understand what they are representing.
There are many different poetic forms such as haiku,
ballad, and sonnet that often carry an implicit meaning. We
associate haikus with philosophy, sonnets with love, and
ballads with adventure. Knowing a large variety of forms
will help you recognize the form a poet is using. This will
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allow you to discuss how the poet is adhering to the
conventions of the form or challenging them.
 Assume that a free-verse poem does not include
aspects of different forms.
 Try to identify the poetic form by noting the
conventions of the form and discussing how the poet
might embrace or challenge these conventions.
Stanza. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://www.poetryarchive.org/glossary/stanza
Uychoco, M. (2016). 21st century literature from the
Philippines and the world. Manila: Rex Book Store,
Inc.
Yuson, A. (2015, December 11). Pinoy hip-hop poetry.
Retrieved from https://www.philstar.com/lifestyle/arts-
and-culture/2015/12/11/1531826/pinoy-hip-hop-poetry

References:
Alfonso, A. & Fontanilla, A. (2014). Spoken word: integrating
discourse into contemporary literature (ethnography).
Retrieved from
https://www.academia.edu/attachments/36888567/down
load_file?st=MTU1ODkyNjU2NSwxMTkuOTMuMjU
wLjE5OSw2NDExODA4Ng%3D%3D&s=profile&ct=
MTU1ODkyNjU2NywxNTU4OTI2NTcwLDY0MTE4
MDg2
Angeles, M. (2014, March 1). Is FlipTop the modern-day
Balagtasan? Retrieved from
https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/lifestyle/artandcult
ure/350760/is-fliptop-the-modern-day-balagtasan/story
Basic elements of poetry. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://penlighten.com/basic-elements-of-poetry
Condliffe, P. (2017). How to analyze a poem in 6 steps.
Retrieved from https://www.matrix.edu.au/how-to-
analyse-a-poem-in-6-steps
Encyclopaedia Britannica (2017, July 31). Figure of speech.
Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/art/figure-
of-speech.
Elements of poetry. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms.

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