Freedom and patriotism in the prize-winning poems of Zaragoza and Gumban

Abstract

The literature of a people mirrors their sentiments and aspirations, and among the literary forms, poetry seems to be the favorite medium for the artistic articulation of a people's feelings—their anguish and joy, their fears, their hopes, their dreams.

The Ilonggo people have produced a good number of poets who wrote in their native language, Hiligaynon. Their works dwell on subjects as varied as human feeling and imagination can cover. For this paper, however, I have selected the related topics of freedom and patriotism, and have limited the study to the prize-winning poems of the two foremost Hiligaynon poets: Flavio Zaragoza Cano of Cabatuan and Delfin Gumban of Pavia, Iloilo.