Philippine magazine. [Vol. 34, no. 1]

Balagtas' Contributions to Tagalog Poetry
By Melchor T. Villanueva

T HE poetry of Balagtas is rich with both the
spirit and the ideas of his time. Through
such popular literary forms as the awit and 2
the moro-moro, he expressed the feeling of the need
for reform which stirred the Filipinos but which a
they could not put into words without courting
persecution by the Spanish authorities. In many passages
in his masterpiece, the awit, "Florante at Laura",
as well as in other of his dramatic works, the reader perceives the poet himself voicing his reproaches of the government most subtly and yet effectively, for in spite of the
remoteness of its foreign setting and the strangeness of its personages, the inner meaning of this long romantic poem was
not lost upon the people. The fact that in places the
allegorical elements are somewhat far-fetched and confused,
helped the work to pass the scrutiny of the censors of the time.
The didactic elements contained in his poetry are even
now not displeasing because of the truth and wisdom of his
observations. Although there is an element of religiousness in his work, he never went to the extent of proselyting.
The Florante concludes with the conversion of the Mohammedan characters to Christianity, as was, indeed, the popular practice of authors of this type of literature, but his
conception of religion included more than church-going and
confessions and communions. He even advocated religious
tolerance and a universal brotherhood of man, as shown by
the friendship between Aladdin, the Moorish lord, and
Florante, the Christian prince.
Notable, too, is his use of allusions that reveal a mind well
versed in classical literature. Yet serious as was sometimes
his purpose and learned his allusions, he well knew how to
blend the playful and the humorous with the serious and
the satirical. Note the simple, idiotic comicality of Nubio
in the play, "Orozman at Zafira", and the clever witticisms
of Toming in the farce, " "La India Elegante y el Negrito
Amante".*
Balagtas deserves credit for incorporating his revolutionary ideas in the popular metrical form of the awit, which
he did without sacrificing purely literary values. His stanzas possess a decided superiority over those of other metrical
writers of the time in their completeness of thought, balanced construction, grammatical accuracy, verbal sweetness, and undulating rhythm.
Not much can be said of Balagtas' original contributions to the Tagalog poetic rhythm and meter.
No poet of his age could rid himself of the conventional dodecasyllabic meter of the awit and the octosyllabic meter of the corrido. Balagtas used both according to the mood of the poem. His most dignified
Pieces of poetry like "Pangaral sa Isang Binibining
Ikakasal" (Counsels to a Bride-Elect),' are written in
twelve-syllable verses; and the lighter forms, such as the
jovial love songs in "La India Elegante", are composed
in octosyllabic lines. His flawless rhythm is one of the

great attributes of his poetry; one can not but surrender to

K
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the regular movement and magical smoothness of his
-vl verses. This rhythmic flow is produced by a not
too apparent yet regular observance of a caesura in
the middle of every line. This internal feature may
be common to other metrical romances or awits of
the Tagalogs because of the convention that they
should fit the sing-song manner of reading them, but
the special quality of Balagtas' verses is their inherent
musical rhythm when read, even without the flavoring
artificiality of music. The reader is irresistibly drawn into
the perfect rhythm.
Balagtas' rhyme scheme does not differ from the conventional assonantic rhyme of Tagalog poetry, but it is notable
for its ease and simplicity. The reason for this is his fine
taste in rhyming. As the late Don Epifanio de los Santos
observed, "Balagtas, a diferencia de los demas poetas
tagalas, no acostumbra rimar la vocal e con la i, ni la
o con u". (Balagtas, unlike other Tagalog poets, is not
accustomed to rhyme the vowel e with i, nor o with u).2
His rhymes never seem forced or artificial, and the words
seem naturally and logically.to be the right words for the
poet's ideas and emotions. Yet he handles his rhyme
schemes with masterly skill. He employs rhyme freely at the
ends of his verses and at any place within the line, especially
in the syllable midway in the line. This internal rhyme is
largely responsible for the beautiful verse effects, and can be
employed only by a master of the art of versification. As a
matter of fact, Balagtas often rhymes three or four words
in a line, and repeats the same sound in the same stanza
two or three times without appearing to stuff his verses.
In most cases the effect is sonorousness and fitness to the
pervading sentiment of the poem rather than a verbose
alliterativeness.
Although Balagtas accepted the traditional formulae for
the different poetical and dramatic forms of his age, he
never submitted to such restraint as would have prohibited
full self-expression. He has a style genuinely his own.
The excellent diction that overcomes the artificiality of
Spanish borrowings is a notable feature. The presence of
foreign terms never does any harm either to the thought
or to the metrical construction.
Balagtas' high qualities as a poet are evident in the clearcut images he evokes. What is said by his characters may
be forgotten, but what he has described in his verses remain
uneffaced in the memory. His descriptions include the
most interesting details of persons and places-an attribute
of his style that shows breadth of experience as well as accuracy of observation.
In his figures of speech there are no clumsy distortions
to suit desired effects. His similes and metaphors are as
natural and effortless as they are impressive, although in
many instances he must have found it difficult to ignore the
conventional rustic parallelisms. For instance note his

*Editor's Note: See the "Four O'Clock" column.
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