This document provides information about traditional poetry forms such as haiku, tanaga, and sonnets. It discusses the typical features of each form, including the haiku's 5-7-5 syllable structure and use of kigo (seasonal references). The tanaga is described as a four-line Filipino poem with seven syllables per line that uses a single metaphor. Both the Petrarchan and Shakespearean sonnets are outlined, noting their differing rhyme schemes and thematic structures. Various examples of each form are provided. The document encourages experimenting with traditional forms through revision and hybridization.

1. Anticipation Reaction
Guide
(A Pre-assessment)
Agree Disagree Statement Was I right?
The number of syllables in a
line/stanza is significant in all verse
forms of poetry
A haiku works by combining two
opposite elements in one verse
The tanaga is a Philippine version of
the haiku
To perfect the form, a tanaga could
only be written using Filipino
language

2. Traditional
Poetry

3. Haiku
• is a traditional Japanese verse form with a syllabic pattern
of 5-7-5
• the division of the haiku into three lines is a relatively
recent Western modification
• it was first used in 13th century Japan as the opening to a
renga, a long poem that also depends on a syllabic count
• it eventually became its own separate form in the
sixteenth century

4. Haiku
• The haiku normally has the following features:
1. It works through a juxtaposition of images
2. It contains a pause at the end of either the first line or
the second line
3. It includes a kigo - a word or phrase that specifies
the time or the season of the year

5. Haiku
• It embodies Ezra Pound’s idea of superposition - abstract
content is suggested or evoked through concrete imagery
• In a typical haiku, a mundane observation or a brief
experience becomes an emotionally potent moment or
acquires a startling insight through the use of simple but
evocative language

6. The snow is melting
and the village is flooded
with children.
- Kobayashi Issa, The Snow is Melting

7. Everything I touch
with tenderness, alas,
pricks like a bramble.
- Kobayashi Issa

8. The lamp once out
Cool stars enter
The window frame.
- Natsume Soseki

9. First autumn morning
the mirror I stare into
shows my father’s face
- Murakami Kijo

10. Writing Exercise
1. Write a haiku that makes use of the conventional
features of the form.
2. Do not forget to use concrete imagery. One additional
challenge for you is to avoid using metaphors and
similes and to let the literal images evoke deeper
emotional and intellectual ideas instead.
3. Try to situate your haiku in a Philippine context; that is,
try to include a kigo that is mindful of a season in the
country or a time of day in a particular local setting.

11. Writing Exercise

12. Tanaga
• It is a verse form originating in the Philippines
• It is a short poem made up of four lines, each of which
has seven syllables
• The one distinguishing factor of a Tanaga is that it is “full
of metaphors”

13. - Bienvenido Lumbera, Tagalog Poetry, 1570-1898
“The tanaga revolves around a single metaphor
which establishes an analogy between human
experience and an aspect of man’s
environment”

14. Tanaga
• The central function of the metaphor is a way for the poet
to ground their work within the realm of the mundane and
recognizable
• “figurative language” in the poetic form is “not poetic
ornamentation but the necessary elaboration of a part of
human experience seeking out analogies in life and
nature”

15. Bawat tiklop sa papel
Kalakip ay dalangin
Bahala na ang hangin
Kung langit ang mararating
- Allan Popa, Pagpapalipad

16. Tanaga
• The use of a single image - dissected into its component
parts or expanded through the incorporation of related
details - lends a sense of unity
• The verse form can be divided into two parts
• The first two lines “present a situation”; while the
subsequent two lines “contain an observation”

17. Malinaw na narinig
Ang kalansing sa tubig,
Sinundan ng pagsisid
Baryang di nakabalik.
- Allan Popa,Tanaga sa Batang Badjao

18. Tanaga
• Aside from the use of figurative language and the
scaffolding of movement, the tanaga also has two notable
conventional characteristics:
1. it makes use of only one end rhyme
2. it is often expressed as one long sentence

19. Makadurog ng bato
Ang botang sundalo,
Sakal ng sintas nito
Ang paang nakakalyo.
- Allan Popa, Martsa

20. Writing Exercise
1. Write a tanaga. Be mindful of how you are going to adopt its features.
Will you follow its structural properties faithfully, or will your use of
them be more relaxed? Just as important, what language will you use
to write your tanaga? Since it is a Philippine form, a tanaga is expected
to be written in Filipino; however, you may want to see how you can
adopt its features using another (Filipino) language, try Bisaya!
2. Similar to the haiku, be conscious of using concrete imagery in your
tanaga. Also, try to find a away to make the concrete imagery take on a
figurative layer by using a metaphor.
3. Another challenge for you is to select an image that feels particularly
mundane or common. Pick an object you often use or a thing you often
come in contact with. How can you use this image in a new or
relatively unexplored manner, while still evoking an insight that the
readers can recognize?

21. Writing Exercise

22. Sonnet
• It is a verse form traditionally made up of 14 lines, each of
which is constrained by a fixed meter

23. Meter in Sonnet
• Meter pertains to the measure of sound patterning in
verse
• In English, the sonnet is often eked out in iambic
pentameter, that is, each line has 10 syllables made up
of five iambs
Example:
For I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright /
Who art as black as hell as dark as night

24. Meter in Sonnet
• How do we identify an iambic pentameter?
1. Recognize the stress. For example, the word remark consists
of two syllables. "Re" is the unstressed syllable, with a weaker
emphasis, while "mark" is stressed, with a stronger emphasis.
2. In poetry, a group of two or three syllables is referred to as a
foot. A specific type of foot is an iamb. A foot is an iamb if it
consists of one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed
syllable, so the word remark is an iamb.
3. Pent means five, so a line of iambic pentameter consists of five
iambs – five sets of unstressed syllables followed by stressed
syllables.

25. Meter in Sonnet
/ = ictus, a metrically strong syllabic position
x = nonictus, a metrically weak syllabic position
Examples:

26. Meter in Sonnet
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun

27. Sonnet
• It is a verse form traditionally made up of 14 lines, each of
which is constrained by a fixed meter
• It also follows a rhyme scheme, which means that the
terminal sound of every line interlocks with another line,
or three, and so on

28. –Paul Fussell
“The strict organization of the sonnet, its
mathematical precision, has been found most
appropriate for dense and closely circumscribed
moments of emotion or agument”

29. Petrarchan Sonnet
• It is also known as the Italian sonnet and is widely
regarded as the more popular strain.
• It is named after Francesco Petrarch, an Italian poet who
lived during the early Renaissance and managed to write
317 sonnets, most likely all devoted to one woman
named Laura.

30. Petrarchan Sonnet
I’d sing of Love in such a novel fashion
that from her cruel side I would draw by force
a thousand sighs a day, kindling again
in her cold mind thousand high desires;

31. Petrarchan Sonnet
I’d see her lovely face transform quite often
her eyes grow wet and more compassionate,
like one who feels regret, when it’s too late,
for causing someone’s suffering by mistake;

32. Petrarchan Sonnet
And I’d see scarlet roses in the snows,
tossed by the breeze, discover ivory
that turns to marble those who see it near them

33. Petrarchan Sonnet
All this I’d do because I do not mind
my discontentment in this one short life,
but glory rather in my later fame.
- Francesco Petrarch, Sonnet 131

34. Petrarchan Sonnet
• It is divided into two parts:
1. First, there is the octave, the first eight lines of the
poem which offers an admirably unified pattern of
thought and feeling.
2. After the octave, a volta happens. In this turn,
readers are presented with a logical or emotional
shift by which the persona enables himself to take a
new, altered, or enlarged view of his subjects. This
shift is pursued in the sestet or the last six lines of the
poem.

35. Petrarchan Sonnet
• The stability of the piece is further underscored by the
kind of rhyme scheme observed in Petrarchan sonnet.

36. Much have I traveled in the realms of gold, a
And many goodly states and kingdoms seen; b
Round many western islands have I been b
Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold. a
Oft of one wide expanse had I been told a
That deep-brow’d Homer ruled as his demesne: b
Yet did I never breathe its pure serene b
Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold: a
Then felt I like some watcher of the skies c
When a new planet swims into his ken; d
Or like stout Cortez, when with eagle eyes c
He stared at the Pacific - and all his men d
Look’d at each other with a wild surmise - c
Silent, upon a peak in Darien d
- John Keats, In response
to George Chapman’s
translation of Homer

37. Shakespearean Sonnet
• It is also known as the English Sonnet.
• It is named after the playwright, William Shakespeare.
• It is said to be the nimbler form, that is, the flow of its
ideas seems quicker and more vigorous.

38. Shakespearean Sonnet
My love is a fever, longing still a
For that which longer nurseth the disease, b
Feeding on that which doth preserve the ill, a
The uncertain sickly appetite to please b

39. Shakespearean Sonnet
My reason, the physician to my love, c
Angry that his prescriptions are not kept, d
Hath left me, and I desperate now I approve c
Desire is death, which physic did except d

40. Shakespearean Sonnet
Past cure I am, now reason is past care, e
And frantic-mad with evermore unrest; f
My thoughts and my discourse as madmen’s are, e
At random from the truth vainly express’d; f

41. Shakespearean Sonnet
For I have sworn thee fair and thought thee bright, g
Who art as black as hell, as dark as night. g

42. Shakespearean Sonnet
• The rhyme scheme is extremely varied: a quatrain makes
use of two sets of terminal sounds, with each quatrain
bringing in new sets of rhyme.
• Sound patterns are quickly utilized, and just as suddenly
dispensed with.
• Despite the rapid movement of sounds, however,
consider that all three quatrains relentlessly pursue one
train of thought that it lets progress.

43. Shakespearean Sonnet
• The three quatrains work in tandem with one another to
promote incremental progression.
• But then the last two lines, the couplet, throw this
progression into disarray.

44. How would you differentiate the
Petrarchan Sonnet from the
Shakespearean Sonnet?
If you were to fill the table below with a comparison and
contrast of both sonnet forms, what would be its contents?
Petrarchan Shakespearean

45. Which sonnet form are you
more interested in?

46. Writing Exercise
1. Write a sonnet that follows the flow of ideas of either the
Petrarchan or the Shakespearean template.
2. If you find that conforming to the accentual-syllabic count of
the lines hinders your writing, feel free to drop this convention.
However, you may want to maintain the rhyme scheme of the
sonnet.
3. While love is a consistent topic in the sonnets of Petrarch and
Shakespeare, consider exploring other topics and themes. You
may also want to try other tones. Why don’t you try writing a
funny sonnet, for instance? While a good number of sonnets
are actually quite expository, you may also try to go for other
patterns of development like a narrative sonnet, or a sonnet
composed mostly of imperative sentences.

48. Traditional Poetry
• The formal qualities and thematic treatment of verse form
like the haiku, tanaga, and the sonnet appear stable
because of the fact that frequent use throughout time has
endowed each of them with recurrent characteristics that
subsequent users of the form then adopt.
• However, the writer who chooses to explore these form
does not have to be hemmed in by these characteristics.
• The modification of forms, really, is in keeping with the
dynamic history of literature, its ongoing quest toward
self-renewal.

49. Poem of 14 Lines with 10 Syllables
Each Written During a Tropical Cyclone
by Mabi David
Barely missing a puddle and into
this windswept sidewalk I avoid neighbors
I make a little attempt to know better

50. and ride the path of the feverish crowd
anxious with the news of the incoming
storm, threats sagging the tarpaulin, and deep
my eyes not so much out of unease, now
like its likeness, identifiable
by its outwardness: stops and stars, shuffles

51. of feet and little else to tell one from
the throng’s frantic pulse, prickly city skin
you strap on that quickens with the current
that makes the sound of your feet more certain
for a short while it makes you want to smile.

52. Traditional Poetry
• David's ghost sonnet is but one of the many examples of
poems that try to reformulate more traditional forms,
resulting in exciting transformative combinations that
result from the encounter between the old form and the
individual material.

53. Writing Exercise
1. Write a haiku, tanaga, or sonnet with the idea of revising
the form in order to accommodate the theme you want to
explore. For this writing task, even while you aim to rework
your chosen verse form, you also need to figure out how to
retain enough of the characteristics of the verse form such
that the reader can still recognize what the poem is.
2. One possible way to innovate a verse form is to aim for a
mash-up of sorts: similar to how songs are interwoven
with each other in order to create something new, you can
also try mixing verse forms with each other. What would a
haiku-sonnet hybrid look like? How many ways can you
combine the two?

54. Rubric
Criteria 3 points 2 points 1 point
Content. Does the poem have a clear
purpose and theme that is carried out
throughout the work?
Always
Almost
Always
Rarely or
Never
Imagery. Are sensory and descriptive
words used throughout in order to create
images in the reader’s mind?
Always
Almost
Always
Rarely or
Never
Conventions. Does the writer concentrate
on the mechanics of writing, spelling,
capitalization, and punctuation?
Always
Almost
Always
Rarely or
Never

55. fin