Lesson 1: Traditions and

Location: The Filipino

Poem
Mayon by Kristian Sendon Cordero
 Objective
After going through this lesson, you should be able to:
• identify the geographic, linguistic, and ethnic
dimensions of Philippine literary history from pre-
colonial to modern
• appreciate the application of imagery in the text
provided, paying particular attention to the regional
origins of the poem.
• respond critically to the poem
Mt. Mayon
Mayon Volcano is renowned around the world
for its nearly perfect shape. It is also one of the
most active volcanoes in the world and erupts
regularly. Provinces near Mt. Mayon are
already very accustomed to evacuating
periodically because of the eruptions which
occur. Despite the constant threat of danger,
however, the volcano remains one of the most
popular tourist destinations in the Philippines.
 Traditional and
Locations:
The Filipino Poem
 WHAT IS PHILIPPINE

PhilippineLITERATURE?
literature is literature associated with
the Philippine from prehistory,
through its colonial legacies, and on to the present. Pre-
Hispanic Philippine literature were actually epics
passed on from generation to generation, originally
through an oral tradition.
 A LONG HISTORY OF POETRY

FOUR MAJOR LITERARY PERIODS

 Pre- colonial or Pre-Hispanic (before 1521)
 Spanish Colonial (1521-1898)
 US Colonial ( 1898- 1946)
 Contemporary (1946- present)

A strong indigenous oral tradition is interwoven with the Spanish and

U.S. colonial influences of culture and language. Poetry has been
written in Tagalog (the national language) and in the eighty-seven
regional dialects, as well as in the Castilian Spanish of Miguel de
Cervantes and Lope de Vega and the American English of Walt
Whitman and Mark Twain.
 What is Poetry?
as defined by the Merriam-Webster
dictionary, are pieces "of writing that
usually have figurative language and that
are written in separate lines that often have
a repeated rhythm and sometimes
rhyme."
Pre-Hispanic
 A Long History of Poetry

Song or Awit - existed in many forms and

were used for varied purposes
 How was the awit used?
Songs, or awit, were used by pre-Hispanic
Filipinos extensively.
EXAMPLE:
for the Tagalog people, there were songs for a surprising number
of purposes.
uyayi or lullaby
songs for travelers (soliranin)
war (kumintang)
collective labor (maluway)
courtship (Kumintang)
song of melancholy love and the pamamanhikan
 EXAMPLE
uyayi or lullaby

Sa Ugoy ng Duyan
written by Lucio San Pedro & Levi Celerio

songs for travelers (soliranin)

Soliranin sa Pamamangka
by the Manlalakbays
 EXAMPLE:
war (kumintang)

collective labor (maluway)

 2 major Pre-hispanic Forms

• Riddle/Bugtong
• Proverb/Sawikain
 RIDDLE or BUGTONG
it was a riddle that used talinhaga, or a
metaphor that actually helped convey the
answer to the riddle.

E.g.
“Isang butil ng palay, sakop ang buong
buhay.”
Bumbilya
 RIDDLE or BUGTONG
it was a riddle that used talinhaga, or a
metaphor that actually helped convey the
answer to the riddle.

E.g.
“Maliit na parang sibat, sandata ng mga
pandas.”
panulat
 RIDDLE or BUGTONG
it was a riddle that used talinhaga, or a
metaphor that actually helped convey the
answer to the riddle.

E.g.
“Isa ang pasukan tatlo ang labasan.”

Damit
 SAWIKAIN or SALAWIKAIN

Sawikain or Salawikain were proverbs

that were used to express pieces of
wisdom or beliefs that were important
to Filipino society. These forms were
all done in verse, or metrical writing.
 EXAMPLES

 Kung ano ang puno, siya ang bunga.

 Aanhin pa ang damo, kung patay na
ang kabayo
 May tenga ang lupa, may pakpak
ang balita.
 Epic or Epiko
These were long, episodic, chanted poems
which told a story, normally about legendary
hero and his adventures, often contending
with, and also being aided by, supernatural
creatures and spirit. These were chanted
orally at feasts and rituals, often to inspire
and entertain those who listened.
 EXAMPLES

Two examples of pre-colonial epics that

survive today are Biag ni Lam-ang
(Legend of Lam-ang) in Ilocano (a
northern Luzon dialect) and Ibalon in
Bicol (a southern Luzon dialect).
Poetry in the Spanish
Colonial Period
With the arrival of the Spanish colonizers
Ferdinand Magellan (1521) and Miguel
Lopez de Legazpi (1571) came priests and
their tradition of European Catholicism.
The arrival of the Spanish dramatically altered
what was an already established Philippine
literary tradition. The method of writing, called
baybayin for the Tagalog, was suppressed,
along with many of the epics and poems
already existing, friars called them
blasphemous because of the presence of
supernatural creatures in them.
 Thus Spanish clergy set out to
replace the old oral heroes with
Jesus Christ, and thus for most of
the early years of Spanish rule,
poems tended to be religious in
nature.
Pasyon
Gaspar Aquino de Belen
perpetrated by Mariano Pilapil
FRANCISCO
BALTAZAR
Most notable poet of the Spanish Era
Became known as Balagtas
wrote

FLORANTE at LAURA
FRANCISCO
BALTAZAR
First in the new type of Filipino with
the rise of new middle class, one
that was educated but was not
Spanish.
 JOSE RIZAL
• Just like Balagtas, he was also
educated but not a Spanish. They
are called illustrados.
 ANDRES
BONIFACIO
• also contribute poetry
• wrote the poem Pag-ibig sa
Tinubuang Bayan
 Pagibig sa tinubuang Bayan
Aling pag-ibig pa ang hihigit kaya
Sa pagkadalisay at pagkadakila
Gaya ng pag-ibig sa Tinubuang lupa?
Aling pag-ibig pa? Wala na nga, wala.

Ulit-ulitin mang basahin sa isip

at isa-isahing talastasing pilit
ang salita't buhay na limbag at titik
ng isang katauhan ito'y namamasid
By the end of the Philippine
revolution, Philippine poetry
gained some of the influences and
styles of their colonizers, but was
also been able to remain unique
from the poetry of the Spaniards.
 Poetry and Metrical Romances
 Tanaga or haiku - Are short poems consisting of four lines with
seven syllables each that rhyme at the end of each line.
 Ladino Poems – Were natives of first Tagalog versifiers who saw print:
highly
literate in both Spanish and the vernacular.
 Corridos – Were widely read during the Spanish period that filled the
populace's need for entertainment as well as edifying reading matter in
their leisure moments.
 Awit – like corridos, these were also widely read during the Spanish
period as entertaining, edifying, reading manner in their leisure time. It is
also a fabrication of the writers imagination although the characters and
the setting may be European. The structure is rendered dodecasyllabic
quatrains.
 AMERICAN
COLONIAL PERIOD
They introduced new educational system
The use of English as a medium of
education.
Free Verse and New Criticism became the
buzzwords of poets. Poets such as Angela
Manalang Gloria and Jose Garcia Villa
pushed the envelopes of both form and
content, challenging established
conventions.
 ASSIGNMENT

List down 5 riddles, 5 salawikain,

and 5 epic stories
 REGIONS AND
REGIONAL CULTURE
 The Philippines has a unique cultural
landscape, one shaped by a myriad of
languages and traditions determined by
their geographical and linguistic regions. It
isn't quite right to say that there is just one
Filipino culture, because there are so
many cultures in the country, and they are
all considered to be Filipino. These many
regional cultures, however, do all come
together to create the colorful tapestry that
we call Filipino culture.
National Artist Bienvenido Lumbera
, the reason for a very Manila-centric
view of Philippine culture and cultural
development has to do with the fact
that Manila remains the center of
power in the Philippines.
 Lumbera further stated that "...as it
turns out, literary, musical, visual and
theater arts away from the primate city
(Manila) form a considerable part of the
culture of the Filipino. Now it has become
all too clear that the question of a national
identity for the Filipino cannot be
discussed, much less resolved, only
within the narrow confines of the Center.
And so need to 'de-Center.'"
BIKOL LITERATURE
 Prominent writers such as
Ricky Lee (screenwriter) and

Marne Kilates (poet)

are both natives of Bikol, yet are not known

as Bikolano writers.
 "An matakot sa
doron/Daing aanihon" or
"Those afraid of
locusts/Will not harvest
anything" - a Bikol work
which remained in use.
Tigsik
Tigsik is a form of literature in the Bicol region of the Philippines.
This kind of literacy is somehow similar to Haiku of Japan which
is also has three phases but it does not follow the 5,7,5 pattern
thus making it different to the number of of syllables used in it
which rhythms accordingly. Before, Tigsik is only used for mere
enjoyment especially for momentous and festive occasions of the
natives, some of it are hilarious pieces which contains perverted
content but when you understand it further there is another
meaning to it that imposes knowledge and values. Nowadays, if
you ask somebody from Bicol if they know what Tigsik is, some
of them probably don't know what it is because through the ages
the descendants of the bicolanos has been poor in passing out
the legacy of their own literacy and now is completely ruptured by
time. I Am an advocate of this kind of literacy so that time may
not abandon the wonder of bicolano literature.             
 comedia and zarzuela

Ang sarsuwela o zarzuela ay isang dulang may

kantahan at sayawan, na mayroong isa hanggang
limang kabanata. Ito’y nagpakita ng mga
sitwasyon ng Pilipino na may kinalaman sa mga
kuwento ng pag-ibig at kontemporaryong isyu
 Mariano Perfecto

Ang sarsuwela o zarzuela ay isang dulang may

kantahan at sayawan, na mayroong isa hanggang
limang kabanata. Ito’y nagpakita ng mga
sitwasyon ng Pilipino na may kinalaman sa mga
kuwento ng pag-ibig at kontemporaryong isyu
 comedia and zarzuela

Comedia, a regular-verse drama or comedy.

MAYON
Background
A Volcanic Poet
Kristian Sendon Cordero
 
widely described as the "enfant terrible" of
Bikol writing
a well-anthologized poet
has multiple Palanca awards in poetry, fiction,
and the essay
 has won a host of other awards in poetry, such
as the National Comission on Culture and the
Arts Writer's Prize for Bikol poetry in 2007, the
6th Madrigal Gonzales First Book Award, the
Maningning Miclat Poetry Prize in Filipino in
2009, the Premio Tomas Arejola Literary Prize,
and the Homelife Poetry Contest
 he is also a filmmaker; his film Angustia was
released in 2013
 he has edited a number of collections such as
The Naga We Know and Sagurong which he
co-edited with Paz Vernadez Santos
 he is an educator, being an assistant
professor at the Ateneo de Naga
University
 he writes a column in the Bicol Mail
 he is an active advocate for the
growth of Bikol literature
His Published Collections
Canticos: Apat na Boses (UST
Publishing House, 2013)
Labi (Ateneo de Manila Press, 2013)
Mayon
Kristian Sendon Cordero
Camarines Sur
 
Ayon sa alamat, lason ng pana ni Pagtuga,
ang lumikha sa bulkan - libingan ito
ng dalagang namatay sa isang digmaan.
 
Ngayon, ano ang tutubo sa paanan ng Mayon
gayong nagiging malawak na itong sementeryo
ng abo, ng tao. Manganganak na kaya ito?
Tinitigan ko ang nakangangang bulkan - binabalot
ng ulap at ng sariling usok ang tuktok, gatas sa labi.
Baka sakali, magpakita, nang may silbi ang kamera.
 
Sa ilang retrato na ibinebenta ng mga bata sa Cagsawa
lusaw ang nagliliyab na lava, dumadaloy pababa.
Matandang nag-nganganga ayon naman sa isang makata.
 
Sa isang lumang postcard na nakita ko sa Antigo Merkado-
Kapag sa malayo, isa siyang magandang sikyung nakatanod,
Handa sa pagkapkap, naghi hintay sa iyong pagpasok.
Activity 1
Idea Deck
Respond critically to the following questions.
1. According to the poem, what led to the creation of the volcano?
a. The arrow used by Pagtuga
b. A war which led to Magayon's death
c. The poison of the arrow of Pagtuga
d. The legend of Daragang Magayon
2. In the second stanza, the area around Mayon's foot is described as
a. a graveyard
b. a farm
c. a disaster zone
d. a myth
3. What is the persona in the poem waiting for in the third stanza?
a. For the volcano to erupt
b. For the volcano to show its peak
c. For the volcano to blow more smoke
d. For the volcano to be covered in clouds
Identify the following.
1. It uses talinhaga, or metaphor that actually helped convey the
answer to the riddle.
2. It is used to express pieces of wisdom or beliefs that were important
to Filipino society.
3. These were long, episodic, chanted poems which told a story,
normally about a legendary hero and his adventures.
4. The method of writing for Tagalog.
5. He is knwon as Balagtas.
6. The words or phrases used go beyond their literal meaning and
convey a different set of meanings to the reader.
7. One of two or more words or phrases that end in the same sounds.
8. A regular, repeated pattern of sounds or movements.
9. A general idea (of a poem, story and song), often about human
experience, which, in the end, it wants to share with the audience.
10.It is first popularized by Gaspar Aquino de Belen and perpetrated by
Mariano Pilapil.
11. He is the most notable poet of the Spanish era.
12. He wrote the poem, Pag-ibig sa Tinubuang Bayan.
I13. t is renowned around the world for its nearly perfect shape (perfect
cone).
 
14. He wrote "Florante at Laura."