1. OUTLINE OF LITERARY
FORMS BASED ON
PHILIPPINE HISTORICAL
PERIOD

2. ANCIENT LITERATURE/FOLK
LITERATURE
1. Myth – a traditional story in prose
concerning details of gods and demigods
and the creation of the world and its
inhabitants.
Examples:
1. Visayan Creation Myth
2. Bagobo Creation Story
3. Tungkung Langit and Alunsina

3. Heroic Narratives or Epics
 Folk epics which narrate the adventures of
tribal heroes which embody in themselves
the ideals and values of the group.
Examples:
Lam-Ang
Ulalim
Ibalon
Indarapatra at Sulayman

4. Ethnological Legends
• Legends which explain how things came to
be, why things are as they are.
1. Legend of the Mayon Volcano
2. Legend of the Tagalogs
3. Gaddang

5. Folk Tales
• Prose narrative regarded as:
a. Animal Tale- a folktale using animals as
characters
- Monkey and the Turtle
- The Cow and the Carabao
b. Folk Speech – simplest form of oral
literature
1. Riddles – description of object in terms
intended and suggest something entirely
different.

6. Example:
Tumakbo si Juan, nahati ang daan.
(zipper)
2. Proverbs – short popular sayings that
expresses effectively some commonplace
truth or useful thought.
Example:
Ang hindi lumingon sa pinanggalinga, hindi
nakararating sa paroroonan.

7. c. Folk Songs- verse set into music by the
members of the community.
Example:
Manang Biday
Dandansoy

8. POETRY
• Refers to those expressions in verse, with
measure and rhyme, line and stanza, and has
a more melodious tone.
• Poems are forms of literature usually
written in lines or verses that makes up a
stanza.
• Poems are designed to be read aloud. The
recitation of the poem reveals its rhythm,
and thought units that help out the meaning
it wishes to convey.

9. Elements of Poetry
1. Sense – it is revealed through the
words, images, and symbols.
a. diction – the denotative and connotative
meanings of the words.
b. Images and sense impressions- the words
used that appeal to the sense of
sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch.
c. Figures of speech- the creative use of words
or expressions that poet uses to enhance
the sense impression.

10. 2. Sound
• This is the result of the creative
combination of words. The poet may resort
to the use of anaphora, alliteration,
assonance, rhyme, and repetition.
a. Rhythm- the ordered alternation of strong
and weak elements in the flow of sound and
silence.
b. Meter- the duration, stress number and
syllables per line.
c. Rhyme Scheme- the formal arrangement of
rhymes in a stanza or in the whole poem.

11. 3. Structure
• This refers to the arrangement of words and
lines to fit together and the organization of
the parts to form the whole.
a. Word order- the natural or unnatural
arrangement of words.
b. Ellipsis- omitting some words for economy or
effect.
c. Punctuation- abundance or lack of
punctuation.
d. Shape- contextual or visual design, omission
of spaces, use of capitalization or lower case.

12. TYPES OF POETRY
• NARRATIVE POETRY
• LYRIC POETRY
• DRAMATIC POETRY

13. NARRATIVE POETRY
This form describes the important events in
life either real or imaginary. There are
different varieties:
1. Epic – This is an extended narrative about
heroic exploits often under supernatural
control. It may deal with heroes and gods.

14. 2. Metrical tale- This is a narrative which is
written and told in verse.
EXAMPLE:
BAYANI NG BUKID
Al Perez
Ako’y magsasakang bayani ng bukid
Sandata’y araro matapang sa init
Hindi natatakot kahit na sa lamig
Sa buong maghapon gumagawa ng pilit.

15. Ang kaibigan ko ay si Kalakian
Laging nakahanda maging araw-araw
Sa pag-aararo at sa paglilinang
Upang maihanda ang lupang mayaman.
Ang haring araw di dapat sumisikat
Ako’y pupunta na sa napakalawak
Na aking bukiring laging nasa hagap
At tanging pag-asa ng taong masipag.

16. Sa aking lupain doon nagmumula
Lahat ng pagkain nitong ating bansa
Ang lahat ng tao, mayaman o dukha
Sila’y umaasa sa pawis ko’t gawa.
Sa aking paggawa ang tangi kong hangad
And ani’y dumami na para sa lahat
Kapag ang balana’y may pagkaing tiyak
Umaasa akong puso’y nagagalak.

17. 2. Ballads- of the narrative poems, this is
considered the shortest and the simplest. It
has a simple structure and narrate a single
incident.

18. LYRIC POETRY
• Originally, this refers to the 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.
• It expresses the author’s mood, emotion,
and reflection in musical language.
• It derives its name from the lyre, and was
primarily intended to be sung. Not all lyrics
are singable, but they are melodious.

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

20. CHIT-CHIRIT-CHIT
Chitchiritchit alibangbang
Salaginto salagubang
Ang babae sa lansangan
Kung gumiri’y parang tandang
Santo Nino sa Pandacan
Puto seko sa tindahan
Kung ayaw kang magpautang
Uubusin ka ng langgam.

21. Mama, mama, namamangka
Pasakayin yaring bata
Pagdating sa Maynila
Ipagpalit ng manika.
Ale, ale, namamayong
Pasukubin yaring sanggol
Pagdating sa Malabon
Ipagpalit ng Bagoong.

22. CHIT-CHIRIT-CHIT (English)
Chit-Chirit-Chit, Alibangbang
Gold bug and the beetle
The street woman
Struts like a rooster.
Child saint of Pandacan
Puto seco in the store
If you don’t want to lend
You’ll be devoured by ants.

23. Sir, sir, paddling the canoe
Give this child a ride
When you reach Manila
Swap it with a doll.
Lady, lady, with the umbrella
Shade this infant
When you reach Malabon
Swap it with Bagoong.

24. Sonnets
This is a lyric poem of 14 lines dealing with
an emotion, feeling, or an idea. There are
two types of sonnet: Shakespearean and
Petrarchan (Italian).
EXAMPLE:

25. SANTANG BUDS
by Alfonso P. Santos
Let me see in dreams the santang buds
That in my absence blossom still beside
My window, Crimson buds, like crimson pearls
Ever faithfulness they bloom, unchanged,
Unfailing like the memories of home,
Now is the time, the season of their blooming,
An hour less, an hour more, yet stays
Their crimson evermore unchanged, untouched

26. Let me but see in dreams the santang buds
That in my absence blooms, in faith for one
Heart lost in foreign lands, fated to share
No love, no fortune from the world but born
To suffer want and misery, decreed
To live unknown, in penitence and need.

27. ELEGY
This is a lyric poem which expresses the
feelings and griefs and melancholy, and
whose theme is death.
It may voiced the author’s personal grief for a
loved one, or a loss affecting the public as a
whole, or it may be just a meditation about
death in general.

28. THE LOVER’S DEATH
Ricardo Demetillo
He who had lived the earth with a firm love
Is now, being infirm, laid in the earth
That covers him with green grass quietly,
Once when he walked the fields, he suddenly
knelt
And with an avid gesture clasped the earth.
His sun-lit fingers sift the dust.

29. Lovers would write their incoherent view,
On passionate pages, but he, on the pads of
meadow,
Wrote with his plow a tongue-tied love.
Field understood, for when the harvest
ripened,
Fruits lay like a brown breast for his hands to
pluck,
And he with the lightness, touch each
pregnant stalk
His house was quiet, like the man who closed

30. The gate-behind him when the lamplight
glowed
He knew no woman’s touch except the earth’s
We thought it fitting that the sun should touch
With quite fingers the rice-fronds in the field
When he, after a fever, gave himself to dusk.
We could not salvage breath, but we could
swathe
His body and lay it in the earth he loved
He may return and beckon from a sheaf.

31. ODE
• This is a poem of a noble feeling, expressed
with dignity, with no definite number of
syllables or definite number of lines.
• It is the most majestic type of lyric poem. It
expresses enthusiasm, lofty praise of some
person, thing, a deep reflection, or a
restrained feeling.
• The author is in an exalted mood.

32. PSALMS (DALIT)
• This is a song praising God or the Virgin
Mary and containing philosophy of life.
EXAMPLE:
O Mariang sakdal dilag
Dalagang lubhang mapalad
Tanging pinili sa lahat
Ng Diyos Haring Mataas

33. Itong bulaklak na alay
Aming pagsintang tunay
Palitan mo Birheng Mahal
Ng Tuwa sa kalangitan.
Halina’t tayo ay mag-alay
Ng bulaklak kay Maria
Halina’t magsilapit
Dine sa birheng marikit
Ng Inang kaibig-ibig

34. Dakilang Reyna sa langit
Ng ampuni’t saklolohan
Tayong mga anak niya.

35. AWIT
• These have measures of twelve syllables
(dodecasyllabic) and slowly sung to the
accompaniment of a guitar or banduria.
• An example of awit is FLORANTE AT
LAURA by Francisco Balagtas.
• It is a fabrication of the writers imagination
although the characters and setting may be
European.

36. EXAMPLE IN FRANCISCO BALTAZAR’S
FLORANTE AT LAURA:
Ang taong magawi sa ligaya’t aliw,
Mahina ang puso, lubhang maramdamin,
Inaakala pa lamang ang hilahil
Na daratna’y di na matutuhang bathin

37. CORRIDO (KURIDOS)
• These have measures of eight syllables
(octosyllabic) and recited to a martial beat.
• They were widely read during the Spanish
period that field the populace’s need for
entertainment as well as edifying reading
matter in their leisure moment.
• Deal mostly with courtly love and the
chivalric adventures of such heroes as
Charlemagne and his peers and El Cid.

38. Example from “Ibong Adarna”
O birheng kaibig-ibig Di-umano’y si Don Juan
Ina naming nasa langit, Bunso niyang minamahal
Liwanagin yaring isip Ay nililo at pinatay
Nang sa layo’y di malihis. Ng dalawang tampalasan
Ganito ang napagsapit May isang ibong maganda
Ng haring kaibig-ibig Ang pangalan ay Adarna,
Nang siya’y managinip Pag naririnig mong kumanta
Isang gabing naiidlip Sa sakit ay giginhawa.

39. DRAMATIC POETRY
Included in this form are:
Comedy, Melodrama, Tragedy, Farce, and
Social Poems.
1. Comedy – The word comedy comes from the
Greek word “Komos” meaning festivity or
revelry. This form is usually light and written
with the purpose of amusing, and usually has a
happy ending.

40. 2. Melodrama- This is usually used in a
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.

41. 4. Farce- This is an exaggerated comedy. It
seeks to arouse mirth by laughable lines,
situation 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 as it pictures the life of
today. It may aim to bring about changes in
the social conditions.

42. REVOLT FROM HYMEN
Angela Manalang Gloria (1940)
O to be free at last, to sleep at last
As infants sleep within the womb of rest!
To stir and stirring find no blackness vast
With passion weighted down upon the
breast,

43. To turn the face this way and that and feel
No kisses festering on it like sores,
To be alone at last, broken the seal
That marks the flesh no better than a
whore's.

44. RELIGIOUS DRAMAS

45. PANUNULUYAN
- Literally, seeking entrance, the Tagalog
version of the Mexican Posadas. Held on
the eve of Christmas, it dramatizes Joseph’s
and Mary’s search for lodging in
Bethlehem.
- Is also called Pananapatan or Panawagan.
Gagharong or Paharongharong in Bicol.

46. CENACULO
• Was originally just the dramatization of the
passion and death of Jesus Christ presented
during Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.
• The players either speak their lines in a
slow and deliberate way, (hablada); or
chant their lines in the manner of pasyon
singing (cantada).

47. SALUBONG
• An Easter play that dramatizes the meeting
of the risen Christ and his mother.

48. THE MORIONES
• Refers to the participants dressed as Roman
soldiers, their identities hidden behind the
colorful, sometimes grotesque, wooden
mask.
• The Pugutan or beheading climaxes the
Moriones festival. The headless body is
then taken in procession around the town by
his fellow soldier and then buried.

49. THE TIBAG
• Also known as Santacruzan.
• It is performed during the month of May
which have a devotion to the Holy Cross. It
depicts St. Elena’s search for the cross on
which Christ died.
• The Tagalog name TIBAG comes from the
act of excavating or leveling the mounds.

50. THE PANGANGALUWA
• An interesting socio-religious practice on
All Saint’s Day which literally means “for
the Soul”
• The practice is based on the old belief that
the souls in the purgatory are “released” on
the night of All Saint’s Day to go begging
alms on earth.
• These were generally held during the nine
nights of vigil and prayers after someone’s
death, or the first death anniversary when
the family members put away their
mourning clothes.

51. THE KARAGATAN
• “Open Sea”, comes from the legendary
practice of testing the mettle of young men
vying for a maiden’s hand. The maiden’s
ring would be dropped into the sea and
whoever retrieves it would have the girl’s
hand in marriage.

52. THE DUPLO
• A forerunner of the balagtasan. The
performers consist of two teams: one
composed of young women called Dupleras
or Belyakas; and the other, of young men
called Dupleros or Belyakos. An elderly
man- the Hari or Punong Halaman- presides
over the proceedings.

53. THE COMEDIA
• One of the earliest forms of stage drama
which took on a particular aspect; that of a
particular play which had for its main theme
courtly love, usually between a prince and a
princess of different religions – one a
Christian, the other a Muslim. These
conflicts were resolved in the end, with the
victory of the Christians, a propaganda tool
which was endorsed by the friars.