Jose Garcia Villa, who went by the name Doveglion B. Singalong, was born in Manila on August 5, 1908. He enrolled at the UP College of Medicine in 1925 but he never finished his medical studies. His first interest was painting but he turned to writing after reading Sherwood Anderson’s Winesberg, Ohio. His first poems gained fame when he was suspended for one year by the UP administration for publishing “Man Song.” After which, he studied at the University of Mexico and then at the University of Columbia. He went to teach poetry and worked in the Philippine mission to the UN where he became the vice consul in 1965. He started out as a fictionist before he introduced his poetic innovations – the comma poems and the reversed consonance. Jose Garcia Villa won many awards for his works and was eventually named National Artist in Literature in 1973.

The commas in his poems are not used as it is in prose. Rather, he had a special and poetic use for it. Functionally, they serve a purpose and poetically, the purpose is different from that of commas in prose. He calls these poems “comma poems” and the commas themselves are a part of the poem. It affects what Villa calls “the poem’s verbal density and time movement: enabling each word to attain a fuller tonal and sonal value.” There is a pause after each comma but it is not as long as the prose use which is why there is no space after the comma. For Villa, the result is “a lineal pace of dignity and movement.”

The 113^th poem, which is untitled – a usual case with Villa’s other poems – is an example of a poem wherein Villa made use of the comma innovatively:

VOLUME TWO – Divine Poems

113

 

My,bright,Lion,coming,down.

Down,Jacob’s,ladder,he,—

My,bright,Lion,coming,down!

 

Whatever,in,you,glows—

Whatever,in,you,can,praise—

(Laurel,fruit,or,stone)

 

To,my,bright,Lion,cast,it,now!

Look—in,his,mouth,

O,look—in,that,clean,mouth,

 

How,bravely,carries,he,

God,the,Dark,Corpse!

Out,of,Shining,Heaven,at,last.

Employing the first person point of view, the poem illustrates that the persona being trapped with lions (My,bright,Lion,coming,down. / Down,Jacob’s,ladder,he,— / My,bright,Lion,coming,down!) and his acceptance of his fate (Whatever,in,you,glows— / Whatever,in,you,can,praise / (Laurel,fruit,or,stone) / To,my,bright,Lion,cast,it,now!). The poem would make one think of a similar story in the bible: Daniel 6:1-23, wherein Daniel was trapped in the lion’s den for worshipping God at a time when the law decreed that he should worship the country’s king. Due to his faith, he came out of the den unharmed. However, the poem does not narrate the story itself and only holds a few similarities. The poem focuses on the point of view of the persona who faces a lion and his feelings about the state he is in. Rather than feeling horror or alarm at the prospect of being eaten by a lion, the persona sees the lion as a source of redemption or deliverance. He does not consider the approach of the lions with dread but instead welcomes it as a source of his salvation.

One of the significant motifs is the persona’s description of the Lion as bright in which the words “bright,Lion” creates a paradox because lions, as concrete imagery, would be pictured as beasts to be feared. They are terrifying and aggressive, often thought as hungry for flesh. By calling a lion bright, the word connotes that it is a source of light or hope, redemption, or salvation. For the persona, the Lion does not signify his doom. The word bright changes the image of the lion from something to be frightened of into something to be welcomed.

Originally, in the story of Daniel, Daniel was trapped in the den in which the entrance was barred by a stone. In contrast to this, the persona describes a ladder from which the Lion comes down. Having a religious theme, the Jacob referred to in the poem must be the brother of Esau and the father of twelve sons who later became the founders of Israel. “Jacob’s,ladder” is the ladder to heaven that Jacob saw in his dream after fleeing from his father and brother wherein angels were ascending and descending to heaven through it. By going down that ladder, the Lion in the poem becomes almost equivalent to the angels that ascend and descend it. This further emphasizes that the persona does not regard the Lion with fear but with favor or acceptance. The Lion may also be considered as an angel or even as God, instead of a beast as the title literally means.

Meanwhile, in the first two lines of the second stanza (Whatever,in,you,glows— / Whatever,in,you,can,praise), the persona calls upon the nature of the Lion but he calls upon things that are good and praiseworthy. Once again, the poem defies the usual, stereotypical image of a lion. The persona sees something good about the creature. The third line symbolizes and further emphasizes this: Laurel,fruit,or,stone. Laurel represents kingship or heroism, the fruit symbolizes the “fruit of life” – something abundant and life giving – and the stone signifies a foundation (possibly of kingdoms). It is followed by the third stanza, which illustrates the persona’s total feeling of acceptance. He calls upon the lion to deliver the blow (To,my,bright,Lion,cast,it,now!). The poem uses concrete imagery to show that the lion is about to strike (Look—in,his,mouth / O,look—in,that,clean,mouth,). And yet the persona does not dread the coming of the Lion and even notices the cleanliness of its mouth.

The fourth and last stanza reveals that the persona finally attained freedom from physical darkness or mortal death (Dark,Corpse!) into spiritual light through the descent of the Lion from Heaven (Out,of,Shining,Heaven,at,Last.). It does not matter if the persona will be eaten by lions. The salvation of the soul is more significant. The persona’s concern is not of his mortal life, which is why he welcomes the coming of the Lion because it is the one that will deliver him to salvation or that he believes will save his soul.

In this poem, Villa uses free verse – a unique form wherein the author experiments with poetry. His experimentation lies in his extraordinary use of commas. In effect, each word is pronounced clearly and the poem, when expressed verbally, is slower compared to when it is read without the commas. This is the time movement that was affected, as Villa mentioned, and in pronouncing each word more carefully, the tonal sound becomes fuller. Employing this method of reading for the poem, the attention given to each word slows the poem down, creating an image of a slow descent of the Lion. It also establishes a calming tone that the persona feels because he is able to focus just as the reader focuses on each word more clearly than if the poem removed its commas.

The persona in the poem does not automatically fall in the exact situation as Daniel did with the lions in the den. Instead, the poem sheds a different light to the nature and identity of the Lion and the role it plays for the persona. The poem dismantles the general reputation of the Lion and casts it into a role of a hero or a savior that the persona welcomes. More importantly, it is through the Lion that the persona gains his salvation.

REFERENCES:

Villa, Jose Garcia. Selected Poems and New. New York: McDowell, Obolensky, 1958.

Dubov, Nissan Dovid. The Key to Kabbalah: The Ladder. 4 Feb 2008. <http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/361883/jewish/The-Ladder.htm>

Jacob’s ladder. 4 Feb 2008. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob%27s_Ladder>