COUNTER By: Edith

CYCLE Tiempo
EDITH TIEMPO

She is born on April 22, 1919 in San Nicolas,

Bayombong Nueva Vizcaya. She is known as a
fictionist, poet, critic, teacher, and was
proclaimed National Artist in Literature in 1999.
She graduated Magna cum laude in Silliman
University with a Bachelor degree in Education,
major in English.
 NOVELS OF EDITH TIEMPO

A Blade of Fern His Native Cost The Alien Corn

(1978) (1979) (1992)
NOVELS OF EDITH TIEMPO

One Tilting Leaves The Builder(2004)

(1995)
SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS
OF EDITH TIEMPO

Abide Joshua, and Other

Stories (1964)
 POEMS OF EDITH TIEMPO

The Track of Babylon The Charmer’s Box Bonsai (1993)

(1966) (1993)
SPEAKER/AUDIENCE
The speaker of the poem is the author and the
audience is the reader of the text.
TONE/MOOD

Tone: Ironic
Mood: Serious
ANALYSIS
Much has been said and And regular in nature’s
written down vital processes,
Citing the span between Germination and birth
the fruiting
Justified and vindicated
In the high sky-reaching
-so to say- in the glossy
Branches, scented
And the fruit’s eventual Fruit now fully grown
falling;
And completed, and
The return to the earth already depleting
Proclaims a cycle that Toward still another end,
Nothing much has been -decayed vegetable, fish,
said and written or animal meat
Citing the counter cycle Or decomposed garbage
heap;
Of death sprouting into
life; It would seem that a living
breath
Discounting saints’ and
Heaven’s miracles, Whiffs the “would-be-
sprouts” to breathing:
Most of the new life
flourishing in the soil Warm living breath
Burgeons not from Of some stillest still-life
nurturing toil pulsing
Or bottled begetter, In the heart of all dead
How can we fathom The sudden leaf and
The stages blossom;
No wonder we wince
Of this death-to-life
process, at gross imaginings
Or even guess When our poets spins
The tale of siniguelas
At the ways of its deep flourishing
Still-life mystery From Emman’s decayed
Given only mouth,
And caimito amply fruiting
To witness
From Ninoy’s decayed
The new life suddenly guts;
plying
Though I suppose you No consuming hate,
would agree
Only loathing skulking and
That we should see subtle
Our poetic lore As the sneaky unnatural
has even more
Life from things rotting---
Of thought that gives a bad Thoughts couched in terms
turn writhing
To themselves
And turning---outdoing
and to us, The still-life huffing and
Thoughts of urn puffing
-ing wishes And skewing the sprouting
process
THEME
“Counter cycle is a part of the rhythm of life”
ABOUT THE TITLE
“Cycle” means the process of life and death
“Counter” is someone or something the
opposite of another
FORMALISM APPROACH
This poem use formalism approach. It refers to
critical approaches that analyze, analyze,
interpret, or evaluate the inherent features of a
text. The formalistic approach reduces the
importance of a text’s historical, biographical, ad
cultural context.
THANK YOU FOR
LISTENING 