West Visayas State University-Pototan Campus | 2020

UNIT 2. POETRY

Lesson 1. Characteristics of Modern and Postmodern Poetry as

Compared to Traditional/Regular Poetry
Learning Outcome: Students must have differentiated the modern and postmodern
poetry as compared to other genres of poetry.

A. Pre-Reading Activity

Make It Concrete

Concrete poetry, also known as shape poetry, is a type of poetry that uses some sort of visual
presentation to enhance the effect of the poem on the reader. While the words, writing style, and
literary devices all impact the meaning of the poem, the physical shape the poem takes is also of
significance.
Compose a concrete poem about any topic that interests you. Then, explain whether it is
modern or regular poetry.

B. Main Reading Activity

1. Modern Poetry

Modern poetry refers to the verse created by the writers and poets of the 20th and 21st
centuries. The actual definition of “modern” varies, depending on the authority cited. Some people
would define modern poetry to include the poets of the 19th century, such as Edgar Allan Poe and
Walt Whitman. Recognizable aspects of modern poetry include an emphasis on strong imagery and
emotional content and less reliance on the use of rhyme. Modern movements such as Beat
poetry and poetry slams also would be included.

Characteristics of Modern Poetry

1. Modern poetry is written in simple language, the language of every day speech and even
sometimes in dialect or jargon like some poems of Rudyard Kipling (in the jargon of soldiers).
2. Modern poetry is mostly sophisticated as a result of the sophistication of the modern age, e. g.
T. S. Eliot's "The Waste Land".
3. Alienation. The poet is alienated from the reader as a result of the alienation of the modern
man.
4. Fragmentation: the modern poem is sometimes fragmented like a series of broken images,
and a gain like "The Waste Land".
5. Modern poetry is highly intellectual; it is written from the mind of the poet and it addresses
the mind of the reader, like the poems of T. S. Eliot.
6. It is interested in the ugly side of life and in taboo subjects like drug addiction, crime,
prostitution and some other subjects. Like the poems of Allen Ginsberg.
7. Modern poetry is pessimistic as a result of the bad condition of man in many parts of the
world, such as most of the poems of Thomas Hardy.
8. Modern poetry is suggestive; the poem may suggest different meanings to different readers.
9. Modern poetry is cosmopolitan. It appeals to man everywhere and at every time because it
deals with the problems of man or humanity.
10. Experimentation is on of the important characteristic feature of modern poetry. Poets try to
break new grounds, i. e. to find new forms, new language and new methods of expression.

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11. It is irregular, written without metre and rhyme scheme and sometimes written in prose like
the pros poem.
12. Interest in politics and the political problems of the age.
13. Interest in the psychology and in the subconscious. Many poets
wrote unconsciously under the effect of wine or drugs.
14. Irregularity of form. Modern poetry is mostly written in free verse
and prose (the prose poem).
15. Ambiguity: Most of the modern poetry is ambiguous for many
reasons.
16. Interest in myth and especially Greek myth.
17. Interest in the problems of the average man and the lower classes of society.

2. Postmodern Poetry

Postmodern poetry is notoriously elusive to define because of the variety of perspectives and
opinions it generates from erudite laymen, professional academicians of various fields and literary
specialists of various genres. Nonetheless daunting though it might seem, a valiant attempt was made
to define Postmodern Poetry, to pare it down to its essentials as it was considered essential and
imperative for the pursuance and progress of this study.
Postmodern poetry is a type of poetry that has been explored since about the 1960s and is often
noted for a few stylistic and thematic aspects. This poetry is often written in a way that is quite free
form and meant to reflect the process of thought or organic speaking through a stream of
consciousness style.

Elements of Postmodernism

• Irony, absurdity, playfulness & black humour : treating serious subjects as a joke, sometimes with
emotionally distant authors. Playfulness is central to postmodernism; it reinforces the idea that there
is no organizing principle in a chaotic world.
• Distrust:
○ of theories and ideologies;
○ of the author/narrator, undermining his control of one voice
○ of modern assumptions about culture, identity, & history
• Pastiche (mixing genres) as an homage to or a parody of past literary styles
• Metafiction: making the artificiality of writing apparent to the reader, i.e. deliberate strategies to
prevent the usual suspension of disbelief, drawing attention to the conventions of literature
● Technoculture and hyper-reality: worlds and characters inundated with information, focused on
technology in everyday life, swamped by products and bombarded by advertising, ambiguity about
what’s real and what’s simulated.
● Maximalism: sprawling canvas and fragmented narrative i.e. looking disorganised and filled with
playful language for its own sake.
● Minimalism: short, ‘slice-of-life’ stories where readers have to use their own imaginations to create
the story. Unexceptional characters, economy with words. Spare style, lacking adjectives, adverbs and
meaningless details.
• Historiographic metafiction: fictionalising actual events and figures from history
• Faction: blending fact and fiction, especially historical novels or those using real living personalities
e.g. world politicians or celebrities.
• Temporal distortion: events can overlap, repeat, or multiple events can occur simultaneously, often
to achieve irony.
• Magic realism: imaginary themes and subjects, with a dream-like quality, mixing the real with the
fantastic, surreal and bizarre. Timeshifts, dreams, myths and fairy stories as part of the narrative,
arcane erudition, inexplicable events, elements of surprise or abrupt shock.
• Intertextuality: quotations, references and allusions, designed to make apparent that every text
absorbs and transforms some other text somewhere.

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3. Traditional/Regular Poetry

Traditionalists generally believe that poems give enduring and universal life to what was merely
transitory and particular. Through them, the poet expresses his vision, real or imaginative, and he
does so in forms that are intelligible and pleasurable to others, and likely to arouse emotions akin to
his own. Poetry is language organized for aesthetic purposes. Whatever else it does, poetry must bear
witness, must fulfill the cry: 'let not my heart forget what mine eyes have seen.' A poem is
distinguished by the feeling that dictates it and that which it communicates, by the economy and
resonance of its language, and by the imaginative power that integrates, intensifies and enhances
experience. Poems bear some relationship to real life but are equally autonomous and independent
entities that contain within themselves the reason why they are so and not otherwise. Unlike
discourse, which proceeds by logical steps, poetry is intuited whole as a presentiment of thought
and/or feeling. Workaday prose is an abbreviation of reality: poetry is its intensification. Poems have
a transcendental quality: there is a sudden transformation through which words assume a particular
importance. Like a bar of music, or a small element in a holographic image, a phrase in a poem has
the power to immediately call up whole ranges of possibilities and expectations. Art is a way of
knowing, and is valuable in proportion to the justice with which it evaluates that knowledge. Poetry is
an embodiment of human values, not a kind of syntax. True symbolism in poetry allows the particular
to represent the more general, not as a dream or shadow, but as the momentary, living revelation of
the inscrutable.

Elements of Traditional Poetry

Rhyme scheme – organized patterns of rhyme in poetry. Not all poems have rhyme, however.

Meter – the rhythm or “pattern of accented and unaccented syllables in the lines of a poem.

Alliteration – repeating of beginning consonant sounds.

Creamy and crunchy”

Assonance – repetition of vowel sounds.

Till the shining scythes went far and wide
And cut it down to dry
Consonance – repetition of consonant sounds anywhere in the words.
The sailor sings of ropes and things
In ships upon the seas

End rhyme – rhyming of words at the ends of two or more lines of poetry.
She always had to burn a light
Beside her attic bed at night

Internal rhyme – rhyming of words within one line of poetry.

Jack Sprat could eat no fat or
Peter Peter pumpkin eater

Onomatopoeia – use of a word whose sound makes you think of its meaning.
buzz, gunk, gushy, swish, zigzag, zing, zip

Repetition – repeating of a word or phrase to add rhythm or to emphasize an idea.

Suddenly there came a tapping, as of someone
gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.

Stanza – a division in a poem named for the number of lines it contains.

Couplet – two lines Sestet – six lines
Triplet – three lines Septet – seven lines
Quatrain – four lines Octave – eight lines

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Forms of Traditional Poetry

Ballad – a poem which tells a story

Ballad of Davy Crockett

Blank Verse – unrhymed poetry with meter. The lines are 10 syllables in length. Every other syllable ,
beginning with the second syllable is accented.

Elegy – a poem which states a poet’s sadness about the death of an important person.

Epic – a long story which describes the adventures of a hero

Free Verse – poetry which does not require meter or a rhyme scheme

Haiku – type of Japanese poetry which presents a picture of nature. A haiku poem is three lines in
length. The first line is five syllables; the second, seven; and the third, five.

Limerick – humorous verse of five lines. Lines one, two, and five rhyme, as do lines three and four.
Lines one, two and five have three stressed syllables; lines three and four have two.

Ode – long poem that is deep in feeling and imagery and is dedicated to a
person or a thing. Begins with “Ode to _________”

Sonnet – fourteen line poem which states a poet’s personal feelings.

Follows a set rhyme scheme.

C. Post-Reading Activity

Matrix Only

In a matrix, show the similarities and differences of modern, post-modern and tradional/regular
forms of poetry.

Modern Poetry Postmodern Poetry Traditional/Regular Poetry

Differences Differences Differences

Similarities

D. References

https://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-modern-poetry.htm
https://cedw.tu.edu.iq/images/%D9%A7-%D9%A2%D9%A0%D9%A1%D9%A8/hamdi/Characteristics_
of_Modern_Poetry.pdf
https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/225669/9/09_chapter%203.pdf
https://www.bisd303.org/cms/lib3/WA01001636/Centricity/Domain/1342/Postmodernism.pdf
http://www.textetc.com/traditional.html

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Lesson 2. Free Verse Poetry and Its Characteristics

Learning Outcome: Students must have explained the characteristics of free verse
poetry.

A. Pre-Reading Activity

Song Liner

1. Do this as candidly as possible.

2. Choose five from your list of favorite songs.
3. Arrange them from your most favorite to your least favorite.
4. Then, you compose a one-stanza poem using the lines from your chosen songs.
5. Choose your most favorite line from each song according to how you arrange them.
6. Afterwhich, write your chosen lines from the songs to compose your five-line, one-stanza
poem.
7. Finally, after composing your poem, answer this: “What can you say about your poem?”

B. Main Reading Activity

Free verse is a poetry organized to the cadences of speech and image patterns rather than
according to a regular metrical scheme. It is “free” only in a relative sense. It does not have the steady,
abstract rhythm of traditional poetry; its rhythms are based on patterned elements such as sounds,
words, phrases, sentences, and paragraphs, rather than on the traditional prosodic units of metrical
feet per line. Free verse, therefore, eliminates much of the artificiality and some of the aesthetic
distance of poetic expression and substitutes a flexible formal organization suited to the
modern idiom and more casual tonality of the language.
Free verse is a literary device that can be defined as poetry that is free from limitations of
regular meter or rhythm, and does not rhyme with fixed forms. Such poems are without rhythm and
rhyme schemes, do not follow regular rhyme scheme rules, yet still provide artistic expression. In this
way, the poet can give his own shape to a poem however he or she desires. However, it still allows
poets to use alliteration, rhyme, cadences, and rhythms to get the effects that they consider are
suitable for the piece.

Features of Free Verse

 Free verse poems have no regular meter or rhythm.

 They do not follow a proper rhyme scheme; these poems do not have any set rules.
 This type of poem is based on normal pauses and natural rhythmical phrases, as compared to
the artificial constraints of normal poetry.
 It is also called vers libre, which is a French word meaning “free verse.

Characteristics of Free Verse

Free verse is not prose set out in lines. Like other sorts of poetry, it is language organised for its
musical effects of rhythm and sound. However, these effects are used irregularly, not according to
any completely fixed pattern.

Among the poetic devices that are often found in free verse are

 repetition (often with variation)

 patterns of stressed and unstressed syllable
 alliteration
 occasional internal rhyme (rhyme occurring inside a line)

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 occasional rhyme at the ends of lines (often imperfect rhymes such as half-rhymes and
pararhymes)
 patterns of assonance (syllables in which the vowel sounds are the same)
 imagery

C. Post-Reading Activity

Discuss Through

Through a paragraph, discuss the characteristics of a free verse poetry.

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D. References

https://www.britannica.com/art/free-verse
https://literarydevices.net/free-verse/
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/f/forms-of-verse-free-verse/

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Lesson 3. Spoken Word-- Definition, Development, and Characteristics

Learning Outcome: Students must have discussed the characteristics and
development of spoken word poetry.

A. Pre-Reading Activity

Do the Fliptop

Fliptop is a filipino rap battle of insults thrown between two people. The only difference about
this rap battle is that there is no beat playing. The participants think on their toes trying to best each
other and make "bara" one another. The insults range from physical appearances to sexuality of the
opponent.

Listen to yourself as you deliver the fliptop lines below of Abra vs Shehyee:

“Hindi ko akalain na makikipaglaban ako sa isang mangyan ng iba pang lungga, na mababa ang tingin
kay bathala kaya, ayan, ganyan ang ginawang sumpa. Yung baba nya sandata at yan ang
pinapang-tuka. Sa sobrang haba nyan pwede nang lagyan ng isa pang mukha.

Kung face value ang usapan wala ako kahit konting kaba. Kasi ang asim na nga ng mukha mo, tapos,
korteng mangga. Mangga-ling ka man sa Mangga-luyong isa ka pa ring mangga-gaya. Pag lumaking
duktor – manggagamot, pagtrabahador – manggagawa.

Sa ganyang baba, siguro pag humihindi ka pwede ka ng makasuntok ng tao. Pag umu-oo ka naman
pwedeng pwede ka ng pampukpok ng pako.

At kung magrereband ka lang nang… baba ka ng baba eh height mo nga mababa. Tsong ba iba na, kasi
ang baba ng kaligayahan mo tapos yung mukha mo may takong sa ibaba.

Isa lang naman ang tanong ko jan sa alaga mong parihaba… baba, baba pano ka ginawa?

Napakatulis na parang espada ng samurai na sa mukha nakalagay. Yumuko ka lang ng konti, hara kiri
pwede ka ng magpakamatay.”

Questions to answer:

1. How do you feel about delivering the fliptop lines?

2. How do you consider fliptop as a form of literature?
3. How is fliptop similar to other forms of literature?

B. Main Reading Activity

Spoken Word Poetry

Although often spoken word poetry is considered a modern form, often associated with hip hop
culture, in truth, all poetry began as spoken word poetry. It was part of the oral tradition during a
time before written language was commonplace. So in a sense, spoken word poetry is an ancient
form. However, the term "spoken word" wasn’t popularized until the late twentieth century, the form
has its roots in ancient times, when poets such as Homer—and somewhat later,
Shakespeare—created poems specifically as pieces for performance.
Over the centuries, spoken word poetry evolved to include a variety of forms and styles, but
despite the popularity of performance poetry—stage poetry—the growing presence of printed text
and increased literacy allowed for the rise of poetry in print—page poetry. Where spoken word
poetry emphasizes elements such as sound and performance aspects, page poetry emphasizes the
visual aspect of the written form, including the white space on the page.

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A page poet, Thomas Lux, once asked Taylor Mali, a premier stage poet, "What the heck’s the
difference (between page and stage)?" Mali replied, "Only one, and it’s not even a rule: spoken word
poets tend to memorize their poems." All poets have to write first, whether on a page or on a screen.
Page poets share their work with audiences, but tend to call those "readings," while stage poets tend
to call the sharing of their work "performances."
All this is to say that a spoken word poem must do everything every poem does well, but rather
than focusing on line breaks, stanzas, white space, and the poem’s shape on a page, the poet must
focus on elements of performance, such as gesture, facial expression, pacing, projection,
pattern/repetition, enunciation, and the like.
According to T’ai Freedom Ford, a New York City slam poet, spoken word "fuses creative
wordplay with shiny performance." Because it is performed, this poetry tends to demonstrate a heavy
use of rhythm, improvisation, free association, rhymes, rich poetic phrases, word play, and slang.
Below are some components of strong spoken word poems:
 Concrete Language – Use words and phrases that will elicit vivid images, sounds, actions and
other sensations. If your poem is rich with imagery, your listeners will see, smell, and taste what
you’re describing. Concrete language brings the piece to life for your audience.
 Repetition – Include effective repetition. As you know, effective repetition is a simple, yet
powerful poetic device. The repetition of a phrase or image will help to extend that particular
thought or image beyond its original meaning. This allows the poet to convey an idea or
exaggerate a point that they want to make.
 Rhyme – Consider enhancing your poem with rhyme. If incorporated with skill, surprise, and
moderation, rhyming can enrich your poems and performance.
 Attitude – Fill the poem with your passion. Emotions and opinions are the heart of spoken word
poetry. Be courageous and allow your piece to embody your own unique perspective.
 Persona – Explore writing through a mask, seeing through someone/something else’s eyes and
speaking throught that voice. Persona isn’t a must, but may allow you to understand your topic
in a new way.
 Performance – Practice performing your poem, and revise as needed. Then practice some more,
working on strong stage presence.
 Below are some key elements of performance:
 Posture – Stand up straight, with your feet planted firmly and with your shoulders back, chin up,
and head high. Look confident and assertive.
 Eye Contact – Make eye contact with your audience, and do not stare at the floor, your paper, or
in one particular spot the entire time. From time to time, look into the eyes of the different
people in the audience to hold their attention.
 Projection – Speak loudly and clearly so that your voice can be heard from a distance.
 Enunciation – Don’t mumble. Speak clearly and distinctly so that the audience can understand
what you are saying.
 Facial Expressions – Use facial expressions to convey the emotional content of your poem. Smile
when the content is light or happy; don’t smile if the content is serious or sad.
 Gestures – Use hand motions and body movements to emphasize different elements of your
performance. However, don’t rock back and forth or wave your hands about needlessly, as these
movements may distract your audience.
 Memorization – Try to memorize your poem so you can focus more on its performance of the
poem. However, so far as performance is concerned, it is more important to “learn your poems
by heart.” If you are really in touch with the meaning and the emotional content of your poem,
even if you forget a word or a line, you can keep going. Learning by heart allows you to
incorporate improvisation into your poem, which is another elements of spoken word poetry.

C. Post-Reading Activity

Spoken Word Explanation

Through at least two-stanza spoken word poem, explain the characteristics and development of
spoken word poetry. Be able to video-record or audio-record your performance. You can also do a
Tik-Tok version of it.

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D. References

https://manilainsight.weebly.com/ed/what-is-fliptop
https://fliptoplines.wordpress.com/
http://msmcclure.com/?page_id=16220

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Lesson 4. Representative Contemporary Poems

Learning Outcome: Students must have given an interpretation of the poem, be it a
dance, song, an essay, or any other form, as long as it is original.

A. Pre-Reading Activity

Let’s Analyze

Read the poem and answer the questions below it.

Tonight I Can Write The Saddest Lines

By: Pablo Neruda

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.

Write, for example, “The night is starry

and the blue stars shiver in the distance.”

The night wind revolves in the sky and sings.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.

I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.

Through nights like this one I held her in my arms.

I kissed her again and again under the endless sky.

She loved me sometimes, and I loved her too.

How could one not have loved her great still eyes.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.

To think that I do not have her. To feel that I have lost her.

To hear the immense night, still more immense without her.

And the verse falls to the soul like dew to the pasture.

What does it matter that my love could not keep her.

The night is starry and she is not with me.

This is all. In the distance someone is singing. In the distance.

My soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

My sight tries to find her as though to bring her closer.

My heart looks for her, and she is not with me.

The same night whitening the same trees.

We, of that time, are no longer the same.

I no longer love her, that’s certain, but how I loved her.

My voice tried to find the wind to touch her hearing.

Another’s. She will be another’s. As she was before my kisses.

Her voice, her bright body. Her infinite eyes.

I no longer love her, that’s certain, but maybe I love her.

Love is so short, forgetting is so long.

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Because through nights like this one I held her in my arms

my soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

Though this be the last pain that she makes me suffer

and these the last verses that I write for her.

Questions to answer:

1. What is the poem trying to express?

2. What feeling is evoked from you when you read the poem? Explain.
3. What are the literary devices present in the poem?

B. Main Reading Activity

The Road Not Taken “To Dream the Impossible Dream”

By: Robert Frost From Man of La Mancha (1965)

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, To dream, the impossible dream

And sorry I could not travel both To fight, the unbeatable foe
And be one traveler, long I stood To bear, with unbearable sorrow
And looked down one as far as I could To run, where the brave dare not go
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
To right, the unrightable wrong
Then took the other, as just as fair, And to love, pure and chaste from afar
And having perhaps the better claim, To try, when your arms are too weary
Because it was grassy and wanted wear; To reach, the unreachable star
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same, This is my quest, to follow that star
No matter how hopeless, no matter how far
And both that morning equally lay And to fight for the right, without question or
In leaves no step had trodden black. pause
Oh, I kept the first for another day! To be willing to march into Hell, for a heavenly
Yet knowing how way leads on to way, cause
I doubted if I should ever come back.
And I know if I'll only be true, to this glorious
I shall be telling this with a sigh quest
Somewhere ages and ages hence: That my heart will lie will lie peaceful and calm
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— When I'm laid to my rest
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. And the world will be better for this
That one man, scorned and covered with scars
Still strove, with his last ounce of courage
To reach
The unreachable
The unreachable
The unreachable stars

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I Vialed the Universe

By: Leoncio P. Deriada

I vialed the universe

And laughed at the concentrated Gods.

But the Genie escaped with His halo of riddles.

I pondered anew and unslept.

Thoughts were strange with the strangeness of new towns

Thoughts were as vast as the unvialed God.

I could not bottle or battle Him.

There: I saw Him mark in the matutinal mist.

I surrendered.

In Time Passing
by Elsa Martinez- Coscolluela

In time passing there are things you come

to learn as well: codes crafted by our fathers
and silences of our mothers as they spun
tapestries of their secret songs.

In time passing, you have broken through

hurtling past law and language defining you to Other, Daughter, Sister,
Wife or Mother: keeper of bones and beads.
And so you are all these: but always you are more.

Adam’s rib, apple-gatherer, candle-bearer;

though you have plucked the forbidden fruit
still, in time passing, you hold infinity
in your womb as from your blood and bone

Lie the primordial source: revealing

there your awesome power – reaping
there a rich harvest of sons and daughters
all sprung from your marrow.

In time passing, though life has etched landmarks

and milestones upon your face, and your words
are weighed with mother-wisdom, you remain
stronger than light, gentler than rain.

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I Like For You To Be Still If You Forget Me

By: Pablo Neruda By: Pablo Neruda

I like for you to be still I want you to know

It is as though you are absent one thing.
And you hear me from far away
And my voice does not touch you You know how this is:
It seems as though your eyes had flown away if I look
And it seems that a kiss had sealed your mouth at the crystal moon, at the red branch
As all things are filled with my soul of the slow autumn at my window,
You emerge from the things if I touch
Filled with my soul near the fire
You are like my soul the impalpable ash
A butterfly of dream or the wrinkled body of the log,
And you are like the word: Melancholy everything carries me to you,
as if everything that exists,
I like for you to be still aromas, light, metals,
And you seem far away were little boats
It sounds as though you are lamenting that sail
A butterfly cooing like a dove toward those isles of yours that wait for me.
And you hear me from far away
And my voice does not reach you Well, now,
Let me come to be still in your silence if little by little you stop loving me
And let me talk to you with your silence I shall stop loving you little by little.
That is bright as a lamp
Simple, as a ring If suddenly
You are like the night you forget me
With its stillness and constellations do not look for me,
Your silence is that of a star for I shall already have forgotten you.
As remote and candid
If you think it long and mad,
I like for you to be still the wind of banners
It is as though you are absent that passes through my life,
Distant and full of sorrow and you decide
So you would've died to leave me at the shore
One word then, One smile is enough of the heart where I have roots,
And I'm happy; remember
Happy that it's not true that on that day,
at that hour,
I shall lift my arms
and my roots will set off
to seek another land.

But
if each day,
each hour,
you feel that you are destined for me
with implacable sweetness,
if each day a flower
climbs up to your lips to seek me,
ah my love, ah my own,
in me all that fire is repeated,
in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten,
my love feeds on your love, beloved,
and as long as you live it will be in your arms
without leaving mine.

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Your Laughter
By: Pablo Neruda

Take bread away from me, if you wish,

take air away, but
do not take from me your laughter.

Do not take away the rose,

the lance flower that you pluck,
the water that suddenly
bursts forth in joy,
the sudden wave
of silver born in you.

My struggle is harsh and I come back

with eyes tired
at times from having seen
the unchanging earth,
but when your laughter enters
it rises to the sky seeking me
and it opens for me all
the doors of life.

My love, in the darkest

hour your laughter
opens, and if suddenly
you see my blood staining
the stones of the street,
laugh, because your laughter
will be for my hands
like a fresh sword.

Next to the sea in the autumn,

your laughter must raise
its foamy cascade,
and in the spring, love,
I want your laughter like
the flower I was waiting for,
the blue flower, the rose
of my echoing country.

Laugh at the night,

at the day, at the moon,
laugh at the twisted
streets of the island,
laugh at this clumsy
boy who loves you,
but when I open
my eyes and close them,
when my steps go,
when my steps return,
deny me bread, air,
light, spring,
but never your laughter
for I would die.

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C. Post-Reading Activity

From the poems above, choose only one. Make an interpretation of it. Show your interpretation
through a dance, song, an essay, or any other form, as long as it is original.

D. References

https://medium.com/poem-of-the-day/pablo-neruda-tonight-i-can-write-3c5a23982e0d
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44272/the-road-not-taken
https://genius.com/Richard-and-adam-the-impossible-dream-the-quest-from-man-of-la-mancha-lyric
s
http://compilationofphilippineliterature.blogspot.com/2011/03/i-vialed-universe-leoncio-p-deriada.h
tml
https://hellopoetry.com/poem/9922/i-like-for-you-to-be-still/
https://allpoetry.com/If-You-Forget-Me
https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/your-laughter/

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Lesson 5. Representative Popular Poems

Learning Outcome: Students must have evaluated poems based on the
characteristics of modern, postmodern, traditional/regular or free-verse form of
poetry.

A. Pre-Reading Activity

The Pop Poem

Just Friends
By: Lang Leav

I know that I don't own you,

and perhaps I never will ,
so my anger when you're with her ,
I have no right to feel .

I know that you don't owe me,

and I shouldn't ask for more;
I shouldn't feel so let down,
all the times when you don't call .

What I feel —I shouldn't show you,

so when you're around I won't ;
I know I've no right to feel it
but it doesn't mean I don't .

Questions to answer:

1. For you, what is the poem trying to tell the readers?

2. How do you describe the poem in terms of its form and structure

B. Main Reading Activity

Love Lost A Time Capsule

By: Lang Leav By: Lang Leav

There is one who you belong to, This is where,

whose love—there is no song for . I began to care,
And though you know it's wrongful , where I was befriended.
there is someone else you long for .
This is where,
Your heart was once a vessel , my soul was bared,
it was filled up to the brim; where all my rules were bended.
until the day he left you,
now everything sings of him. This is where,
a moment we shared,
Of the two who came to love you, was stolen and expended.
to one, your heart you gave.
He lives in stars above you— Now this is where,
in the love who came and stayed. this is where,
this is where we've ended-

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Phenomenal Woman When you see me passing,

By: Maya Angelou It ought to make you proud.
I say,
Pretty women wonder where my secret lies. It’s in the click of my heels,
I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s The bend of my hair,
size the palm of my hand,
But when I start to tell them, The need for my care.
They think I’m telling lies. ’Cause I’m a woman
I say, Phenomenally.
It’s in the reach of my arms, Phenomenal woman,
The span of my hips, That’s me.
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips. Alone
I’m a woman By: Maya Angelou
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman, Lying, thinking
That’s me. Last night
How to find my soul a home
I walk into a room Where water is not thirsty
Just as cool as you please, And bread loaf is not stone
And to a man, I came up with one thing
The fellows stand or And I don't believe I'm wrong
Fall down on their knees. That nobody,
Then they swarm around me, But nobody
A hive of honey bees. Can make it out here alone.
I say,
It’s the fire in my eyes, Alone, all alone
And the flash of my teeth, Nobody, but nobody
The swing in my waist, Can make it out here alone.
And the joy in my feet.
I’m a woman There are some millionaires
Phenomenally. With money they can't use
Their wives run round like banshees
Phenomenal woman, Their children sing the blues
That’s me. They've got expensive doctors
To cure their hearts of stone.
Men themselves have wondered But nobody
What they see in me. No, nobody
They try so much Can make it out here alone.
But they can’t touch
My inner mystery. Alone, all alone
When I try to show them, Nobody, but nobody
They say they still can’t see. Can make it out here alone.
I say,
It’s in the arch of my back, Now if you listen closely
The sun of my smile, I'll tell you what I know
The ride of my breasts, Storm clouds are gathering
The grace of my style. The wind is gonna blow
I’m a woman The race of man is suffering
Phenomenally. And I can hear the moan,
Phenomenal woman, 'Cause nobody,
That’s me. But nobody
Can make it out here alone.
Now you understand
Just why my head’s not bowed. Alone, all alone
I don’t shout or jump about Nobody, but nobody
Or have to talk real loud. Can make it out here alone.

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Still I Rise Out of A Scar

By: Maya Angelou By: Kristine Buenavista

You may write me down in history I used to look for you

With your bitter, twisted lies, on the stomach of a lover ,
You may trod me in the very dirt wounds of a stranger ,
But still, like dust, I'll rise. guilt of those who have
failed to see who I really am.
Does my sassiness upset you? Only to be born again
Why are you beset with gloom? out of a scar made of big rocks.
’Cause I walk like I've got oil wells You,
Pumping in my living room. you let a river flow through me,
and you,
Just like moons and like suns, scattered fish
With the certainty of tides, big and small ,
Just like hopes springing high, that could swim across
Still I'll rise. my entirety
and never get caught .
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes? The Stars
Shoulders falling down like teardrops, (a poem by Kristine Buenavista inspired by
Weakened by my soulful cries? Kataw jewelry maker Ghing)

Does my haughtiness offend you? As I walk this distance between our house and
Don't you take it awful hard your goats,
’Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines I dream of us:
Diggin’ in my own backyard. that there are no wrinkles and salt on your face,
that there’s more laughter from my mouth.
You may shoot me with your words, That your face and my mouth can feed
You may cut me with your eyes, the entirety of our children.
You may kill me with your hatefulness, As I walk this distance between our house and
But still, like air, I’ll rise. your goats,
I cry for us:
Does my sexiness upset you? for the fantasies alongside teleseryes,
Does it come as a surprise the lists of our debts in the neighboring sari-sari
That I dance like I've got diamonds store,
At the meeting of my thighs? the lovemaking that has turned into a sour
chore.
Out of the huts of history’s shame I am walking barefooted between our house
I rise and your goats
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain And my heart swells with a deep yearning.
I rise I am fetching your goats every dusk, my dear,
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide, so when you come home,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide. you only need to gaze at my sleeping face
and watch the stars from the tears and holes
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear of our roof.
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.

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Doldol Trees
By: Kristine Buenavista

My grandmother is
somewhere else by now,
but the doldol trees still
look like her life:
quiet , exotic,
sometimes unnoticed by
the very ambitious.
I sat in front of her grave
on a day full of butterflies,
bees, and sunshine.
I was alone in the cemetery ,
and a dragonfly hopped
on my right knee
As if telling me that I am
never really alone.
For I am another wild grass
waiting for the breeze.
So I can achingly touch my
neighbor with my frail hand.

C. Post-Reading Activity

Evaluate Two

In the given poems in the main reading texts, choose only two and evaluate the poems based on
the characteristics of modern, post-modern, traditional/regular, or free verse forms of poetry.

___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________

D. References

http://poemsforus.com/lang-leav-just-friends/
https://www.pinterest.ch/pin/525232375289692542/
https://justsomebeautifulwords.wordpress.com/2014/02/27/a-time-capsule-by-lang-leav/
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48985/phenomenal-woman
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46446/still-i-rise
https://poets.org/poem/alone
https://www.facebook.com/alimacommunity.ph/videos/out-of-a-scar/619591815233713/?__so__=p
ermalink&__rv__=related_videos
https://www.facebook.com/alimacommunity.ph/posts/the-stars-a-poem-by-kristine-buenavista-inspi
red-by-kataw-jewelry-maker-ghingas-/312934862649894/

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Lesson 6. Representative Emergent Poems

Learning Outcome: Students must have memorized famous lines or passages and
use them in speaking or writing activities.

A. Pre-Reading Activity

I Have Spoken

Watch this spoken word poetry “Sa Pilipinas” via

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8G48Y_9cV0. Then, be able to answer the questions below.

Questions to answer:

1. In general, what can you say about the poem?

2. What particular line/s is/are relatable to you?
3. What instance/s in your life that the line/s you have mentioned in Question No. 2 can be similar to
your experience/s. Kindly expound.

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B. Main Reading Activity

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3k4ebSEeCwI

Paper Dolls
By: Sierra DeMulder

We are taught
from the moment we leave our pink nurseries
we are collapsible paper dolls:
light to hold, easier to crumple.
That as women, our worth lives secretly
wrapped in lace and cotton panties,
our fragility armored in pepper spray and mace.
They say one in three women will be raped
or sexually abused in their lifetime.
I am one of three daughters.
Imagine each victim is an acrobat.
Her sanity, a balancing act.
Our response is the unfailing safety net.
We never expect to see her across the wire.
You weren’t just violated, we tell her,
you are an empty museum, a gutted monument
to what used to hold so much worth.
With best intentions we tell her to reclaim it,
put a price tag on her rape and own it.
Don’t stand too tall, don’t act too strong.
We will name you denial.
Come back when you are ready to crumble
like your bones are made of chalk.
You can only laugh cutely or cry beautifully,
so cry beautifully.
We will catch you.
We are calling it theft,
as if he could pluck open your ribs like cello strings,
pocket your breasts, steal what makes your heart flutter
and tack its wings to his wall.
Some days you will feel dirty.
Some weeks you’ll remember how hard it is to breathe in public,

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but know this:

the person who did this to you is broken. Not you.
The person who did this to you is out there,
choking on the glass of his chest.
It is a windshield
and his heartbeat is a baseball bat:
regret this, regret this.
Nothing was stolen from you.
Your body is not a hand-me-down.
There is nothing that sits inside you holding your worth,
no locket that can be seen or touched,
fucked from your stomach to be left on concrete.
I know it’s hard to feel perfect
when you can’t tell an Adam’s apple from a fist.
Some ashtray of a man picked you to play his Eden
but I will not watch you collapse.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltun92DfnPY

To This Day
By: Shane Koyczan

When I was a kid

I used to think that pork chops and karate chops
were the same thing
I thought they were both pork chops
and because my grandmother thought it was cute
and because they were my favourite
she let me keep doing it
not really a big deal
one day
before I realized fat kids are not designed to climb trees

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I fell out of a tree

and bruised the right side of my body
I didn’t want to tell my grandmother about it
because I was scared I’d get in trouble
for playing somewhere that I shouldn’t have been
a few days later the gym teacher noticed the bruise
and I got sent to the principal’s office
from there I was sent to another small room
with a really nice lady
who asked me all kinds of questions
about my life at home
I saw no reason to lie
as far as I was concerned
life was pretty good
I told her “whenever I’m sad
my grandmother gives me karate chops”
this led to a full scale investigation
and I was removed from the house for three days
until they finally decided to ask how I got the bruises
news of this silly little story quickly spread through the school
and I earned my first nickname
pork chop
to this day
I hate pork chops
I’m not the only kid
who grew up this way
surrounded by people who used to say
that rhyme about sticks and stones
as if broken bones
hurt more than the names we got called
and we got called them all
so we grew up believing no one
would ever fall in love with us
that we’d be lonely forever
that we’d never meet someone
to make us feel like the sun
was something they built for us
in their tool shed
so broken heart strings bled the blues
as we tried to empty ourselves
so we would feel nothing
don’t tell me that hurts less than a broken bone
that an ingrown life
is something surgeons can cut away
that there’s no way for it to metastasize
it does
she was eight years old
our first day of grade three
when she got called ugly
we both got moved to the back of the class
so we would stop getting bombarded by spit balls
but the school halls were a battleground
where we found ourselves outnumbered day after wretched day
we used to stay inside for recess
because outside was worse
outside we’d have to rehearse running away
or learn to stay still like statues giving no clues that we were there

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in grade five they taped a sign to the front of her desk

that read beware of dog
to this day
despite a loving husband
she doesn’t think she’s beautiful
because of a birthmark
that takes up a little less than half of her face
kids used to say she looks like a wrong answer
that someone tried to erase
but couldn’t quite get the job done
and they’ll never understand
that she’s raising two kids
whose definition of beauty
begins with the word mom
because they see her heart
before they see her skin
Because she’s only ever always been amazing
he
was a broken branch
grafted onto a different family tree
adopted
not because his parents opted for a different destiny
he was three when he became a mixed drink
of one part left alone
and two parts tragedy
started therapy in 8th grade
had a personality made up of tests and pills
lived like the uphills were mountains
and the downhills were cliffs
four fifths suicidal
a tidal wave of anti depressants
and an adolescence of being called popper
one part because of the pills
and ninety nine parts because of the cruelty
he tried to kill himself in grade ten
when a kid who could still go home to mom and dad
had the audacity to tell him “get over it” as if depression
is something that can be remedied
by any of the contents found in a first aid kit
to this day
he is a stick on TNT lit from both ends
could describe to you in detail the way the sky bends
in the moments before it’s about to fall
and despite an army of friends
who all call him an inspiration
he remains a conversation piece between people
who can’t understand
sometimes becoming drug free
has less to do with addiction
and more to do with sanity
we weren’t the only kids who grew up this way
to this day
kids are still being called names
the classics were
hey stupid
hey spaz
seems like every school has an arsenal of names

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getting updated every year

and if a kid breaks in a school
and no one around chooses to hear
do they make a sound?
are they just the background noise
of a soundtrack stuck on repeat
when people say things like
kids can be cruel?
every school was a big top circus tent
and the pecking order went
from acrobats to lion tamers
from clowns to carnies
all of these were miles ahead of who we were
we were freaks
lobster claw boys and bearded ladies
oddities
juggling depression and loneliness playing solitaire spin the bottle
trying to kiss the wounded parts of ourselves and heal
but at night
while the others slept
we kept walking the tightrope
it was practice
and yeah
some of us fell
but I want to tell them
that all of this shit
is just debris
leftover when we finally decide to smash all the things we thought
we used to be
and if you can’t see anything beautiful about yourself
get a better mirror
look a little closer
stare a little longer
because there’s something inside you
that made you keep trying
despite everyone who told you to quit
you built a cast around your broken heart
and signed it yourself
you signed it
“they were wrong”
because maybe you didn’t belong to a group or a click
maybe they decided to pick you last for basketball or everything
maybe you used to bring bruises and broken teeth
to show and tell but never told
because how can you hold your ground
if everyone around you wants to bury you beneath it
you have to believe that they were wrong
they have to be wrong
why else would we still be here?
we grew up learning to cheer on the underdog
because we see ourselves in them
we stem from a root planted in the belief
that we are not what we were called we are not abandoned cars stalled out and sitting empty on
some highway
and if in some way we are
don’t worry
we only got out to walk and get gas

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we are graduating members from the class of

fuck off we made it
not the faded echoes of voices crying out
names will never hurt me
of course
they did
but our lives will only ever always
continue to be
a balancing act
that has less to do with pain
and more to do with beauty

C. Post-Reading Activity

From Spoken to Written

Choose your most favorite line from any of the two spoken word poems. Then, be able to
memorize and use the line that you have chosen as a springboard of your essay. You can cite the line
in the introduction of your essay.
Write an essay about “Bullying”. It can be about your personal experience that you were able to
cope or your opinion about it.

D. References

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8G48Y_9cV0
https://jirahlization.wordpress.com/2017/01/22/paper-dolls-by-sierra-demulder/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3k4ebSEeCwI
https://genius.com/Shane-koyczan-to-this-day-annotated
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltun92DfnPY

E. Suggested Readings

http://www.theodysseyonline.com/top-50-spoken-word-poems

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