Title of the Text: Gabu
Author: Carlos X. Angeles
QUESTIONS
RESPONSE
TOPIC
What is the text all about?
SITUATION
What is the setting referred to or
described in the text?
Answers
Answer:
Carlos A. Angeles
Born on May 25, 1921 in Tacloban City, Leyte
Graduated from Rizal High in 1938
Various universities in pre-med and pre-law
One sem at Ateneo de Manila
Two at UP in 1941 (member of the UP Writers’ Club)
One quarter at Central Luzon Colleges
Did not return to school after World War II
1950 to 1958
Chief of the Philippine bureau of International News Service
1958 to 1980
Guest of the US State Department on a Smith-Mundt leader grant
Press assistant under the Garcia administration
Public relations manager of PanAm Airlines
Board of directors of International PEN, Philippine chapter
A Stun of Jewels
1963
47 poems
In 1964, when poetry was first considered in the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature, received first prize
Republic Cultural Heritage Award for Literature
USA since 1978 with his family
Genre
Philosophical (Existentialist)
Lyric Poem
Persona
Probably someone on a beach at Gabu, watching the rough sea, contemplating life
Theme
Life can be restless like the sea; temporal, but desires permanence.
Explanation:
MEANING AND IMAGERY
The battering restlessness of the sea
Insists a tidal fury upon the beach
At Gabu, and its pure consistency
Havocs the wasteland hard within its reach.
Gabu
A place in Ilocos Norte near the sea
Often, when typhoons occur, places like this are affected greatly
Tsunami
Ex: typhoon Imbudo, July 2003
The sea is restless and can be destructive
Sea = Life
Battering restlessness = Impermanent
Meaning and Imagery
Brutal the daylong bashing of its heart
Against the seascape where, for miles around,
Farther than sight itself, the rock-stones part
And drop into the elemental wound.
The turmoil of the sea is continuous and powerful
Brutal bashing = life’s chaos
Elemental wound = Depths of the sea
Meaning and Imagery
The waste of centuries is grey and dead
And neutral where the sea has beached its brine,
Where the split salt of its heart lies spread
Among the dark habiliments of Time.
The sea has been there for centuries
Waste of centuries = Past
Once the sea touches shore, it becomes neutral
Spilt salt = Bad luck
Saltiness of the sea describes it’s darkness/deadness
Time bears the “spilt salt” of life
Meaning and Imagery
The vital splendor misses. For here
At Gabu where the ageless tide recurs
All things forfeited are most loved and dear.
The brilliance necessary for life is not there because in life even the most important things are lost
Meaning and Imagery
It is the sea pursues a habit of shores.
Waves show that the sea is constantly moving, but always towards the shore
Life is bounded by time, always moving, but what we all desire is a stable and eternal ending
Spiritual context: Shore = afterlife
Figures of Speech
Metaphor
Sea = life
Personification
The vital splendor misses
the sea pursues
Synechdoche
Brutal the daylong bashing of its heart
Paradox
All things forfeited are most loved and dear
Reaction
Always remember that our lives are fleeting
The only constant thing in life is change
Life can be rough, like the sea
But we can believe that if the sea can find stability once it meets the shore, we can find it too.
IT is long, but this may help you ☺️
Thank you
