Lyric Poetry

Most of your favorite song lyrics are actually poetry. From these lyrics, you can identify similes,
metaphors, and other poetry techniques.

Lyric comes from the Latin word “lyricus” meaning “of or for the lyre”. In the ancient past,
poems were sung to the lyre. These are called lyric poems. Today, lyric poems do not have the
rhyme nor need to be set to the music or a beat.

Lyric poems express thoughts and feelings. Here are some best examples:

“Turn back the heart that you’ve turned away

Give back your kissing breath
Leave not my love as you have left
The broken heart of yesterday”
-Italian Sonnet by James De Ford, 1997

“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day

Thou art move lovely and more temperate
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date”
-“Sonnet 18” by William Shakespeare

Many lyric poems are about love or nature but they can be about anything which stirs the
emotions. Once sung to the lyre, lyric poetry sweeps you into the poet’s world with vivid,
musical language.

Connect Your Experience

Which of these three are you familiar with? Which of them are known for their durability,
strength, and flexibility?

Camachile Narra
Acacia Caimito
Mango Molave

Read and find out why poems that follows is addressed to Jose Rizal, and why the speaker in the
poem suggests that we must be like the Molave.
 Like the Molave
by Rafael Zulueta Da Costa (1940)

Not yet, Rizal, not yet. Sleep not in peace:

There are thousand waters to be spanned;
There are thousand mountains to be crossed;
There are thousand crosses to be borne.

Our shoulders are not strong; our sinews are grown flaccid
with dependence, smug and ease
under another’s wing. Rest not in peace;
Not yet, Rizal, not yet.

The land has need of your young blood—

And what younger than your own,
Forever spilled in the great name of freedom,
Forever oblate on the altar of the free?
Not you alone, Rizal.

O souls and spirits of the martyred brave, arise!

Arise and scour the land!
Shed once again your willing blood!
Infuse the vibrant red into our thin anemic veins;

Until we pick up your Promethean tools and, strong;

Out of the depthless matrix of your faith
In us, and on the silent cliffs of freedom,
We crave for all the time your marmoreal dream!

Until our people, seeing, are become

Like the Molave, firm, resilient, staunch,
Rising on the hillside, unafraid,
Strong in its own fiber, yes, like the Molave!

Not yet, Rizal, not yet.

The glory hour will come
Out of the silent dreaming
From the seven thousand fold silence
We shall merge, saying WE ARE FILIPINOS!
and no longer be ashamed
Sleep not in peace
The dream is not yet fully carved
Hard the wood but harder the woods
Yet the Molave will stand
Yet the Molave monument will rise
And gods walk on brown legs.
 Activity 1: Comprehension and reading Skills

A. Think about “Like the Molave,” and share your ideas with your classmates and teacher.
Here are some other ideas and questions to talk about. Whenever you can refer back to
the text to check your ideas and answers.
1. Who is the speaker in the poem? Who is the persona, or the character he is
addressing?
2. What does the speaker in the poem want the reader to know? Why does the poet
address his poem to Rizal?
3. Why does the poem suggest that we Filipinos must be like the Molave?
4. Will the “Molave attitude” make our country a better performer in the global village?

B. Pair up and take turns in sharing other insights on the following:

1. How does the poem help you uphold your unique quality as a person? How does it
help you understand other people as well?
2. How does your stock knowledge help you understand “Like the Molave”?
To read and enjoy a lyric poem, find an example of repetition and try to examine
what its effect in the poem.
3. Most poems can be set to music as they express personal thoughts and emotional
feelings.
 Does “Like the Molave” express personal feelings? What are these feelings
(love, loss, protest, sarcasm, etc.)?
 Do you thing the poem can be set to music? Which modern music can you think
of to use as background for the poem?

4. How does the poem relate to the theme “Choices”?

Activity 2: Literary Skills

A. Poets use sound devices to make their writing sound musical. These techniques are used
to achieve different sounds and to enhance poem’s mood and meaning.

1. Study carefully the chart that contains the most commonly used sound devices.

Sound Definition Example

Rhyme Repeating sounds at the end of the word Over the valley and plains I
sweep
Ever repeating the faith that I
keep
Rhythm Beat created by the sound of the words in a The cat sat on the mat
 poem
Repetition Repeating a word of phrase just once or in one The tired dog watched.
specific area of the poem The tired cat slept.
Onomatopoeia Use of words that imitate the sound Bang, crash, hiss, splash
Alliteration Repeating consonants in the beginning of the Ben’s big black bag
word
Assonance Repeating vowel sounds in a line or lines of Grace took a break to bake a
poetry. cake.

2. Which of the sound techniques are used in his poem? Why Imagery is the language
did the poet use such technique? that appeals to the senses.
3. Which sound device do you thing contributes to the theme of
the poem.
B. Many of the poets use imagery in their poems through sensory details to describe people,
object, or ideas.
1. Describe at least two images that help you picture the setting in each poem.
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________

2. What sensory details did the author use to describe how things look, feel, taste, smell,
and sound in his poem? Work with a partner to prepare a list.
__________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________

C. Of the elements of poetry that you have studied here, what element/s contribute/s to the
theme and how?

D. A symbol is a person, place, or thing that stands for something beyond itself. In the
poem, the “Molave” symbolizes resilience. Because they give you the simple and
concrete pictures, this symbol gets you closer to da Costa’s ideas about the true meaning
of bravery.
1. Why is a Molave an effective symbol of heroism?

2. What does “anemic veins” in “Like the Molave” represent? How do you know?

3. What does “Promethean tools” symbolizes for the poet? (b) What details help you
decide?
 Activity 3: Identifying Shades of Meaning of Words

Words can sometimes describe the same general action, but they
Connotation is the emotional or
have slightly different meanings. This is because a word can have cultural meaning attached to a word;
connotative or shades and degrees of meaning. shades and degrees of meaning.

Denotation is the dictionary and

For example, the word snooze, doze, and slumber describe the
literal meaning of the word.
action of sleeping, but each word conveys a slightly different
meaning or way to do it.

A. Which of these words have a positive meaning? Circle them.

1. brag talk show show off

2. shout call scream yell
3. well off fat heavy thick
4. guess imagine believe assume
5. dislike hate despise decline

B. The box below contains jumbles words.

1. Each of the word in the box can be paired with another word, so that both words have
similar definitions but different connotations. You are going to find twelve pair of
words in all.

2. Then the chart below it, write the word of each pair with a positive or neutral
connotation in the left-hand column and the other word of the pair with the negative
connotation in the right-hand column.

self-confident thin though stubborn

bold timid cheap hyperactive
obsessive reserved mushy curious
undernourished impatient stylish self-righteous
cowardly smug nosey energetic
anemic resilient faddish passionate
sentimental strong-willed withdrawn fruggal
 + (positive or neutral connotation) - (negative connotation)

3. Go through the poem “Like the Molave” and find at least five words that have
positive connotations. Then opposite each word, write one negative shade of
meaning. See the example below.

WORD Meaning of the WORD

(with positive meaning) (negative)
Strong violent