TYPES OF LITERATURE

PROSE AND POETRY

 Prayer:
Lord, you are indeed our Savior and protector.. Thank you for all
the blessings. We pray for your continued blessings over our lives,
our work, our livelihood, and our families. Guide us with your
wisdom. May we will be empowered by your Spirit to see the
needs of our students and to inspire those under our care. We
bring our parents, guardians, and caregivers of our students
before you.

Forgive us for all our sins and shortcomings. Thank you for your
guidance and protection. Grant us healthy mind and body and we
pray for your healing power for those who need it. Thank you for
the strength, peace and love. All these we pray in Jesus’ name.
amen!
Prose consists of those written within the common flow of
conversation in sentences and paragraphs, while poetry refers
to those expressions in verse, with measure and rhyme, line
and stanza and has a more melodious tone.

I. PROSE
There are many types of prose. These include the following:

a. Novels. A long narrative divided into chapters and events

are taken from true-to-life stories.
Example: WITHOUT SEEING THE DAWN by Stevan
Javellana

b. Short story. This is a narrative involving one or more

characters, one plot and one single impression.

Example: THE LAUGHTER OF MY FATHER by Carlos

Bulosan

c. Plays. This is presented on a stage, is divided into acts

and each act has many scenes.
Example: THIRTEEN PLAYS by Wilfredo M. Guerrero

d. Legends. These are fictitious narratives, usually

about origins.

Example: THE BIKOL LEGEND by Pio Duran

 
e. Fables. These are also fictitious and they deal with
animals and inanimate things who speak and act like
people and their purpose is to enlighten the minds of
children to events that can mold their ways and
attitudes.

Example: THE MONKEY AND THE TURTLE

 
f. Anecdotes. These are merely products of the writer’s
imagination and the main aim is to bring out lessons to
the reader.

Example: THE MOTH AND THE LAMP

g. Essay. This expresses the viewpoint or opinion of the

writer about a particular problem or event. The best
example of this is the Editorial page of a newspaper.

h. Biography. This deals with the life of a person which

may be about himself, his autobiography or that of others.
Example: CAYETANO ARELLANO by Socorro O.
Albert
 
i. News. This is a report of everyday events in
society, government, science and industry,
and accidents, happening nationally or not.
j. Autobiography. Life story of a person written
by himself

 
II. POETRY

There are three types of poetry and these are

the following:
 
A. Narrative Poetry. This form describes important
events in life either real or imaginary.

The different varieties are:

1. Epic. This is an extended narrative about heroic

exploits often under supernatural control.

Example: THE HARVEST SONG OF ALIGUYON

translated in English by Amador T. Daguio

2. Metrical Tale. This is a narrative which is written

in verse and can be classified either as a ballad or a
metrical romance.
Examples: BAYANI NG BUKID by Al Perez
HERO OF THE FIELDS by Al Perez

3. Ballads. Of the narrative poems, this is considered

the shortest and simplest. It has a simple structure
and tells of a single incident. There are also variations
of these: love ballads, war ballads, and sea ballads,
humorous, moral, and historical or mythical ballads. In
the early time, this referred to a song accompanying a
dance.
 
B. Lyric Poetry. Originalaly, this refers to that kind of
poetry meant to be sung to the accompaniment of a
lyre, but now, this applies to any type of poetry that
expresses emotions and feelings of the poet. They are
usually short, simple and easy to understand.

 
1. Folksongs (Awiting Bayan). These are short poems
intended to be sung. The common theme is love,
despair, grief, doubt, joy, hope and sorrow. 

Example: SITSIRITSIT

2.  Sonnets. This is a lyric poem of 14 lines dealing

with an emotion, a feeling, or an idea. These are two
types: the Italian and the Shakespearean.

 
 3. Elegy. This is a lyric poem which
expresses feelings of grief and melancholy,
and whose theme is death.

Example: THE LOVER’S DEATH by Ricaredo

Demetillo
 
4. Ode. This is a poem of a noble feeling,
expressed with dignity, with no definite
number of syllables or definite number of
lines in a stanza.
 
5. Psalms (Dalit). This is a song praising God
or the Virgin Mary and containing a
philosophy of life.
6. Awit (Song). These have measures of twelve syllables
(dodecasyllabic) and slowly sung to the accompaniment of
a guitar or banduria.

Example: FLORANTE AT LAURA by Franciso Balagtas

7. Corridos (Kuridos). These have measures of eight

syllables (octosyllabic) and recited to a martial beat.

Example: IBONG ADARNA

 
 C. Dramatic Poetry
 
1. Comedy. The word comedy comes from the
Greek term “komos” meaning festivity or
revelry. This form usually is light and written
with the purpose of amusing, and usually has a
happy ending.
 
2. Melodrama. This is usually used in musical
plays with the opera. Today, this is related to
tragedy just as the farce is to comedy. It
arouses immediate and intense emotion and is
usually sad but there is a happy ending for the
principal character.
 
 3. Tragedy. This involves the hero struggling mightily against
dynamic forces; he meets death or ruin without success and
satisfaction obtained by the protagonist in a comedy.

4. Farce. This is an exaggerated comedy. It seeks to arouse

mirth by laughable lines; situations are too ridiculous to be true;
the characters seem to be caricatures and the motives
undignified and absurd.
 
5. Social Poems. This form is either purely comic or tragic and it
pictures the life of today. It may aim to bring about changes in
the social conditions.
 

 
 WRITTEN WORK- November 24
• Differentiate prose and poetry in terms of:
PROSE POETRY
LANGUAGE
STRUCTURE
ELEMENTS
PURPOSE
CONTENT
MY LAST FAREWELL (Dr. Jose Rizal)

Farewell, my adored land, region of the sun caressed,

Pearl of the Orient Sea, our Eden lost
With gladness I give you my life, sad and repressed;
And where it is more brilliant, more fresh and at its best,
I would still give it to you for your welfare at most.

On the fields of battle, in the fury of fight,

Others give you their lives without pain or hesitancy,
The place does not matter; cypress laurel, lily white,
Scaffold, open field, conflict or martyrdom’s site,
It is the same if asked by home and country.
I die as I see tints on the sky begin to show
And at last announce the day, after a gloomy night;
If you need a hue to dye your matutinal glow,
Pour my blood and at the right moment spread it so,
And gild it with a reflection of your nascent light!

My dreams, when scarcely a lad adolescent,

My dreams when already a youth, full of vigor to attain,
Were to see you, gem of the sea of the orient,
Your dark eyes dry, smooth brow held to a high plane
Without frown, without wrinkles and of shame without stain.
My life’s fancy, my ardent, passionate desire,
Hail! Cries out the soul to you, that will soon part from thee;
Hail! How sweet ‘tis to fall that fullness you may acquire;
To die to give you life, ‘neath your skies to expire,
And in your mystic land to sleep through eternity!

If over my tomb some day, you would see me blow,

A simple humble flow’r amidst thick grasses,
Bring it up to your lips and kiss my soul so,
And under the cold tomb, I may feel on my brow,
Warmth of your breath, a whiff of your tenderness.
Let the moon with soft, gentle light me descry,
Let the dawn send forth its fleeting, brilliant light,
In murmurs grave allow the wind to sigh,
And should a bird descend on my cross and alight,
Let the bird intone a song of peace o’er my site.

Let the burning sun the raindrops vaporize

And with my clamor behind return pure to the sky;
Let a friend shed tears over my early demise;
And on quiet afternoons when one prays for me on high,
Pray too, oh, my Motherland, that in God may rest I.
Pray thee for all the hapless who have died,
For all those who unequalled torments have undergone;
For our poor mothers who in bitterness have cried;
For orphans, widows and captives to tortures were shied,
And pray too that you may see your own redemption.

And when the dark night wraps the cemetery

And only the dead to vigil there are left alone,
Don’t disturb their repose, don’t disturb the mystery;
If you hear the sounds of cithern or psaltery,
If is I, dear Country, who, a song t’you intone.
With neither cross nor stone to mark its place,
Let it plowed by man, with spade let it be scattered
And my ashes ere to nothingness are restored,
Let them turn to dust to cover you earthly space.

Then it doesn’t matter that you should forget me;

Your atmosphere, your skies, your vales I’ll sweep;
Vibrant and clear note to your ears I shall be;
Aroma, light, hues, murmur, song, moanings deep,
Constantly repeating the essence of the faith I keep.
My idolized country, for whom I most gravely pine,
Dear Philippines, to my last goodbye, oh, harken
There I leave all; my parents, love of mine,
I’ll go where are no slaves, tyrants or hangmen
Where faith does not kill and where God alone does reign.

Farewell, parents, brothers, beloved by me,

Friends of my childhood, in the home distressed;
Give thanks that now I rest from the wearisome day;
Farewell, sweet stranger, my friend, who brightened my way;
Farewell, to all I love.
To die is to rest.
Performance and Written Work- November 24
Read and study the poem MY LAST FAREWELL (Dr. Jose
Rizal)
Choose 5 stanzas to reflect and interpret and answer the following
Stanza 3 Unfamiliar Words with Interpretation
table: Meaning (2-3 sentences)
1.
1 2.
3.
2