Philippine Poetry:

It’s form, Language, and Speech.

Philippine Poetry
•Philippine poetry in the Philippines is not different
from its other counterparts around the world.
•In the early 1900s, Filipino poetry celebrated
romanticism, and several poems about love
flourished.
•Then, modern poetry sprouted, and nowadays,
writers are more adventurous in their craft.
Here are some elements of poetry that
local writers use in their poems:
•Senses and images are used by the writer to
describe their impressions of their topic or
object of writing.
•The writer uses carefully chosen and phrased
words to create an imagery that the reader can
see through his or her senses.
The kind of sense impressions in poetry are
categorized in mainly the following:
• Visual imagery ( What the writers wants you to see)
• Olfactory imagery ( What the writer want you to smell)
• Gustatory imagery (what the writer wants you to taste)
• Tactile Imagery ( What the writers wants you to feel)
• Auditory imagery ( What the writers wants you to hear)
• Diction is another important element in
Filipino poetry. In fact, Filipino writers are
very careful of the way they write and the
words they use to form their poems.
• Diction is the denotative and connotative
meaning of the words in a sentence, phrase,
paragraph, or poem.
 • Rhyme scheme is the way the author
arranges words, meters, lines, and stanzas
to create a coherent sound when the poem
is read out loud.
• It may be formal or informal, depending
on the way the poem was written by
the poet
 • Senses, Imagery, Diction, and rhyme
scheme are emphasized in this canonical
poem, “Gabu,” one of the most widely read
local poems in English by Carlos Angeles.
• Carlos Angeles was born on 25 may 1921 in
Tacloban, Leyte
 • He finished his undergraduate degree in the
University of the Philippines and his work has
been included in poetry anthologies in the united
states.
• His poetry collection, stun of jewels, won the
Republic Cultural Heritage Award in
Literature back in 1964;
 • He also won the Don Carlos Palanca
Memorial Awards in Poetry in the
same year .
• He is an active member of many Filipino-American
press clubs in the US, where he currently resides.
His Poem, “Gabu,” is said to be one of the most
well-loved Filipino poems written in English.
 Gabu
By: Carlos Angeles
The battering restlessness of the sea
Insist a tidal fury upon the beach
At Gabu, and its pure consistency
Havocs the wasteland hard within its reach
Brutal the daylong bashing of its heart
Against the seascape where, for miles around,
Further than sight itself, the rock-stones part
And drop into the elemental wound.
The waste of centuries is grey and dead
And neutral where the sea has beached its brine,
Where the split salt, of its heart lies spread
Among the dark habiliments of Time.
The vital splendor misses. For here, here
At Gabu where the ageless tide recurs
All things forfeited are most loved and dear.

It is the sea pursues a habit of shores