THE MARCH OF DEATH by Bienvenido N.

Santos

Bienvenido N. Santos March 22, 1911 – January 7, 1996 was a Filipino-American fiction, poetry
and nonfiction writer. He was born and raised in Tondo, Manila. His family roots are originally
from Lubao, Pampanga, Philippines. He lived in the United States for many years where he is
widely credited as a pioneering Asian-American writer.

The Bataan Death march Which Began on April 9, 1942 was the forcible transfer by the
imperial Japanese army of Filipino and American Prisoners of war after the three-month Battle
of Bataan in the Philippines during World War II. The march went from Mariveles, Bataan to San
Fernando Pampanga. The march of death written by Bienvenido N. Santos. The character
portrayed by the writer was a Filipino who sympathized with the brothers we lost during the
Japanese Occupation.The two contrasting moods created by the poem is melancholy and
excitement are the contrasting moods created by this poem. The speaker of the poem is
Bienvenido N. Santos. He might be anywhere but Bataan. In the following phrases, he was just
remembering the past with his brother: along the roads we knew and loved, walk those roads,
dusty in the summer sun, we knew those roads by heart, and we would walk those roads again
one April mornings

Referring the death march on Bataan road 1st stanza: were you one of them my,
brother whom they marched under the April sun and flogged to bleeding along the roads we
knew and loved? 10th stanza: You would be silent, remembering the many young bodies that
lay mangled by the roadside, The agony and the moaning and the silent tears, the grin of yellow
men their blood-stained blades opaque in the sun.The purpose of refrain is to evoke people’s
minds to remember the honorable soldiers who died at the death march. The refrain also tells
about everything happen in the past and we will always be remembered in our memories.

We feel sad and upset after reading the poem. The Japanese did to our fellow Filipino is
very brutal and to kill Filipino is very easy to them in that era. While we read it we happy that
our fellow Filipino exerted to stay alive in that situation and to start a new beginning after the
death march and it is a very inspiring to every citizen of this country. It is a how life was so cruel
to our fellow Filipino during the Japanese Occupation in our country and how they managed to
get through the pain and brutality. Instead of give up try to live whatever happens just live and
start a new beginning a new life like our fellow Filipino did after the march of death.

Moonlight on Manila Bay

By Fernando M. Maramag (1893 – 1936)

A light, serene, ethereal glory rests

Its beams effulgent on each crestling wave;
The silver touches of the moonlight wave
The deep bare bosom that the breeze molests;
While lingering whispers deepen as the wavy crests
Roll with weird rhythm, now gay, now gently grave;
And floods of lambent light appear the sea to pave-
All cast a spell that heeds not time‘s behests.

Not always such the scene; the din of fight

Has swelled the murmur of the peaceful air;
Here East and West have oft displayed their might;
Dark battle clouds have dimmed this scene so fair;
Here bold Olympia, one historic night,
Presaging freedom, claimed a people‘s care.

Magnificence by Estrella Alfon

The story of Magnificence by Estrella Alfon took place at the house of the two children. The
characters of the story are primarily Vicente the bus conductor, the mother, Oscar the little boy
and the little girl.

The story started with a man named Vicente coming to the house of the two children to tutor
them with their school works. The family, especially the mother trusted Vicente whole-
heartedly for they think that the man was always so gentle, so kind, and there was nothing to
fear with when he is around. When Vicente came earlier than usual one evening, the children
immediately put their lesson down sharing stories to him about his classmates being envy with
the pencils he gave them. The children wanted Vicente to buy them more pencils. Then, Oscar
was asked by Vicente to get a glass of water. Vicente held the little girl up lightly in his arms and
held her to sit down on his lap. The little girl felt uncomfortable and kept squirming. Vicente’s
face was wet with sweat and his eyes looked strange. The girl jumped away from Vicente. The
mother saw what has happened. He slapped Vicente and threw him out of the house.
After reading the story, I was moved by how the mother stepped out from shadows just to
protect her children. I admire how the mother exhibit being strong enough and did not let
Vicente feel that she is inferior because she is a woman. Every mother would definitely do
anything to keep their children safe. I am very thankful and blessed that God gave me a mother
who safeguards my wellness. The act of stepping out from shadows of the mother is somehow
similar to getting out of your comfort zone to try and discover new great things that you never
thought or imagine you can do or reach.

I believe that the theme of the poem is about women empowerment. Gender equality implies
society in which women and men enjoy the same opportunities, outcomes, rights and
obligations in all spheres of life. Women empowerment is vital to sustainable development and
the realization of human rights for all. Women should not let men to make them feel inferior.
They must show them their strengths instead of their weaknesses. We, women, must always
remember that without us men cannot live and bring out the best in them and maximize their
potentials.

The Emperor’s New Sonnet

Background/Analysis:

Just a background on the author, Jose Garcia Villa was a Filipino poet,
short-story writer, painter, and literary critic who was awarded the
National Artist of the Philippines for literature in 1973. He was known
for being one of the renowned “artsakists” of his time who believed
that art should be for art’s sake. And although he advised his
students that poems are “written with words, not ideas,” he released
poems such as The Bashful One, which consists only of a comma, and
of course, The Emperor’s New Sonnet, which contains nothing at all,
other than the title.

On normal circumstances, I would go through a poem line per line in

analyzing one, and see how every line would contribute to the overall
meaning. However, the poem to be tackled has no meter, no
extended metaphors, no symbolisms, nor any text whatsoever. All we
are banking on is its title, which alludes to the popular children’s
story The Emperor’s New Clothes, which was written by Hans
Christian Anderson.

Hans Christian Anderson / Wikimedia

The story is an attack on snobbery and pretension, and makes fun of

people who do not have their own say on what is beautiful and tend
to rely on other people’s judgments before making their own. It tells
its readers that sometimes, we need to view things as innocent as a
child would so that we could plainly see what true beauty is, free
from all social conditioning that often warps their perspective on
things.

With this in mind, let us now tackle the poem by Jose Garcia Villa,
which has no words at all. What we have here is something that tells
readers that it is a poem, although in reality, there really is nothing.
There is no beautiful weaving of words, and it seems like the poet is
mocking the reader by telling them to accept the blankness as poetry,
in the same way that the weavers the emperor in the story hired
expects him to accept his invisible suit as one of the most beautiful in
the world.

In all objectivity, there really is no poem in The Emperor’s New

Sonnet, although it calls itself one. Although there are literary critics
and intellectuals who can extract some meaning from the blankness,
there would undoubtedly be that child in us that wants to shout out
that this is not a poem, and that it is only a blank page.

We can probably borrow the moral lesson in the story and put it into
the context of this poem. There are probably times when, like the
characters in the story, we have felt the need to convince ourselves
that a work of art is beautiful, just because some ruling body deemed
it so, even though we ourselves did not genuinely appreciate it. There
must have been some time when you came across some abstract
painting and thought that it was something a child could have done,
and yet you just kept mum about it, because it was supposedly
created by a world-class painter. Or a time when an artsy-fartsy
friend asked you what you thought about this foreign film you totally
found boring, and answered that it was nice. Or a time in English
class where you were forced to nod and say that you liked a certain
short story, even though you did not understand a single thing from
it.

Oftentimes we are too quick to suppress our own judgments; for fear
that other people may find us “less-cultured” or even downright
stupid if we would not agree with them. In effect, we no longer
practice our critical thinking, thinking that anyway, there are
authorities who can decide for us, and we wouldn’t mind being
enslaved to their judgments because we can readily dismiss that they
are right.

However, this shouldn’t be the case, and The Emperor’s Sonnet tells
us this in its own eccentric way. It plays on how readers would think
of it, on whether the blank space is a poem or not, while reminding
them of the message in the story The Emperor’s New Clothes.

On why Jose Garcia Villa wrote this (if you would call that writing), I
could make a guess. He was known to be one of the harshest critics
of Filipino poetry in English in his time, and has angered many of
those who received his critiques. And I wouldn’t exactly blame the
subjects of his critiques for their reactions. To one literary collection,
for example, he wrote: “The poetry you print is unforgivable. It stinks.
My God, if I had judicial power, I’d throw you in jail for publishing
such rot and exemplifying them before the public as good poetry,
thus submerging the public still more.”

In one essay, he wrote that there wasn’t anyone who was educated
enough in poetry in the Philippines. The country, according to him,
was “deluged with poet-simpletons—triflers in verse, poets without
crania—the producers of featherweight poetry.”

Perhaps it was his frustration with Philippine poetry in English that

drove him to create The Emperor’s New Sonnet. Frustrated, or
maybe even disgusted, with the praise that some of the Filipino poets
were getting from the critics, he may have written the poem to target
those who readily accept the so called “featherweight” poetry of his
time, who were, perhaps, reading poetry in the same way that the
emperor’s ministers and the townspeople were looking at the
emperor’s “suit.” Perhaps with this poem of his, he sought to serve as
the child in the story to challenge what he felt was a sorry state of
Philippine poetry in his time.

Whether you’re still debating with yourself if this is a poem or not, it

is undeniable that Villa’s The Emperor’s New Sonnet shall continue to
provoke and baffle its readers for many years to come.

Kupal na project

Long white folder

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page has a title

Poems
The March of Death By Bienedevino Santos

Moonlight on Manila Bay by Fernando M. Maramang

The Emperor's New Sonnet By Jose Garcia Villa

Short Story

Magnificence By Estrella D Alfon

There was this really fat Girl by Carla M. Pacis

Of fish, flies, dogs and women by Timothy R. Montes

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Literary Elements of 21st Century Philippine literature from the regions(CAPSLOCK) In partial
fulfillment of the subject requirements in 21st Century Literature from the Philippines and the
World Submitted by: Submitted To: Date Submitted: