A brief survey of Iloko literature from the beginnings to its present development, with a bibliography of works pertaining to the Iloko people and their language, by Leopoldo Y. Yabes.

1LOKO LITERATURE

Ines Kannoyan, wife of Lam-ang, Iloko lengendary hero.3
Lyric:-It is significant that more patriotic literature, in
poetry and in prose, was produced in Iloko during the two decades following the Philippine-American war than during the
propaganda period, the Philippine Revolution, and the Philippine-American war, which cover about the same length of time.
This can be explained partly by the fact that, as vas pointed
out in the previous chapter, the abler Iloko writers during the
propaganda period and during the Revolution used Spanish
chiefly as their medium of literary expression and partly by
the establishment during the American occupation of freedom
of speech and of the press, which was non-existent during the
propaganda period.
Writers and poets of the century may be grouped into two
schools: the old and the new. To the old belong those who
were born and educated during the Spanish regime or during
the Revolution but who have done most of their writing after
the Revolution; and to the new belong those who have been
educated in the present school system and were born at the turn
of the century.
The Old School:-This school includes Marcelino Crisologo,
Claro Caluya, Mariano N. Gaerlan, Eleuterio Guirnalda, Buenaventura J. Bello, Santiago A. Fonacier, Jose Castro, Facundo
Madriaga, Florencio Lagasca, Victorino Balbin, Matea de Peralta, EnriQueta de Peralta, Ursula Villanueva, Antonia Marcos Rubio, Mauro Verzosa, Ponciano Morales, and Mauro A. Pefiato mention some of the most notable. Isabelo de los Reyes,
who is still living; Gregorio Aglipay. who writes occasional
poetry; and Justo Claudio y Fojas and Mariano Dacanay, who
both lived into this century-these do not belong properly to
this school. Aglipay is not primarily a poet, and Dacanay,
Claudio y Fojas, and de los Reyes did their best work during
the Spanish regime.
Marcelino Crisologo, mainly a novelist, is one of the few
Iloko poets who have both substance and form. He has an
excellent command of language and is not a slipshod thinker.
Much of his poetry is permeated with religious and patriotic
feeling. Claro Caluya was in the early part of the century
accepted by the Ilokos as the "prince of Iloko poets".' His
forte was the love poem, although he also wrote fairly good
patriotic verse. He was in addition a writer of songs, and
many of his compositions are still sung today. Mariano N.
3-This versified story, by Efraim Fa. Ordinario. was published in the
Ilocos Times serially from November to December, 1935. The author invented many of the events described, thus detracting from the folkloric
value of the work.
4-Pefia, M. A. and Fogata, A., op. cit., p. 35.