1. Rizal’s
Intellectual
Legacy in
Selected Poems

2. Leading Poems:
• “Sa Aking Mga Kababata”
• Rizal Loves Poetry.
• “Education Gives Luster to the
Motherland”
• “To the Filipino Youth”
• “To the Flowers of Heidelberg”
• “Hymn to Labor”
• “My Retreat”
• “The Song of the Traveler”
• “My Last Farewell”

3. “Sa Aking Mga Kababata”
• Written when Rizal was 8 years old (1860) before he
went to Binan to begin his formal schooling under
Maestro Justiniano Cruz
• Pointed out the nationalistic significance of the Mother
tongue in the life of our people. If a country really loves
her God-given tongue, she will surely yearn for freedom
like the birds in the firmament.
Kapag ang baya‟y sadyang umiibig
Sa kanyang salitang kaloob ng langit
Sariling kalayaa‟y nais rin magamit
Katulad ng ibong nasa himpapawid.

4. • Rizal scorns those who refuse to love their native
language when he said:
Ang hindi magmahal sa sariling wika
Mahigit sa hayop at malansang isda.
• Rizal at an early age already felt that some of his
countrymen have developed a colonial mentality to the
prejudice of our native language. Besides praising
nationalism, liberty and freedom, he advocated racial
equality. He pointed out the equality of our language to
Latin, English, and Spanish because God gave it to us.
Our language like others have alphabets
which, however, were lost and destroyed by invaders in
the earlier years:

5. Ang wikang Tagalog tulad din sa Latin,
Sa Ingles, Kastila at salitang Anghel,
Sapagkat ang Poong maalam tumingin,
Ang Siyang nanggawad, nagbigay sa atin.
Ang salita nati‟y huwad rin sa iba
Na may alfabeto at sariling letra,
Kaya nawala‟y dinatna ng signos
Ang lumbay sa lawa noong dakong una.

6. Rizal Loves Poetry
• Literature as a course in the Ateneo included poetry
and rhetoric which were studied and practiced on the
model of the Greek and Latin classics.
• His sensitiveness and self-assertiveness developed
race-consciousness which was to color his whole life.
• He found literature the means through which he
channeled his responses on love and defense of country.

7. “Education Gives Luster to the
Motherland”
• At the early age of 16, Rizal was already aware of his
Motherland and love of country was also awakened him.
• Inspired by the gains he had through education, the
young Rizal envisioned what education can do to a
country if its leadership would be made up of a new
breed of educated youth.
• Rizal hoped his countrymen to seek knowledge in order
to live a life of enlightenment which would make the
country rise to the heights of honor and prestige.
• He pictured beautifully education as the foundation of
knowledge which gives endless glory.

8. • Rizal urged his fellow students to educate themselves
because wise education gives birth to science and art.
As the hope of the Motherland, they could do a lot to
improve not only their lives but also the social
conditions in the Philippines.
• Through wise education, the youth is directed along the
path of righteousness and goodness. If the youth follow
the path, he will be inspired.
• Reiterating the luster of wise education, Rizal ended his
poem with a feeling of triumph. Comparing the
wonderful gift of wise education to the Motherland with
the gift of a golden sun to the world, he wrote:

9. And like the golden sun of the morn
Whose rays resplendent shedding gold,
And like fair aurora of gold and red
She overspreads her colors bold;
Such true education proudly gives
Such pleasure of virtue to young and old
And she lightens our Motherland dear
And she offers endless glow and luster.

10. “To the Filipino Youth”
• The Liceo Artistico-Literario de Manila, an association
of arts lovers in Manila regularly held literary contests
to stimulate an develop literary talents. In 1879, it
opened one for works in verse and prose with a special
prize to Filipinos and half-breeds. Rizal participated in
the contest by submitting a poem entitled, “To the
Filipino Youth,” ( A La Juventud Filipina ).
• Like his poem “Education Gives Luster to Motherland,”
he inspired the youth to develop their talents, look
forward and break the chain of their “bondage,” he
called them “Bella esperanza de la patria mia” (“Fair
hope of my Motherland”).

11. • Eager to shake off the belief among the Filipinos that the
white man was superior to them, Rizal encouraged the
“timid flowers, fair hope of my Motherland to lift up your
radiant brow and show your talent resplendently and
grand.”
• He urged the youth to “fly swifter than the wind and
descend with art and science to break the chain that has
bound the poetic genius of the nation.”
• In this poem:
• Rizal called on the poet to open the horizon and write
poetry about the country:
Soar high, O genius great,
And with noble thoughts fill their mind;
The honor‟s glorious seat,
May their virgin mind fly and find
More rapidly than the wind.

12. You, who heavenward rise
On wings of your rich fantasy,
Seek in the Olympian skies
The tenderest poesy,
More sweet than divine honey.
• He urged the singer to dissipate man‟s sorrow:
You, of heavenly harmony,
On a calm unperturbed night,
Philomel‟s match in melody,
That in varied symphony
Dissipate man‟s sorrow‟s blight.
• To the sculptor Rizal‟s request was to animate the hard
rock with life:
You, at the impulse of your mind
The hard rock animate.

13. • And to the painter, Rizal‟s request was to give beauty to his canvas:
And you, your magic brush
On canvas plain capture.
. . the Mantle of Nature.
• Rizal urged the youth to develop their talents and find out what
genius would be proclaimed throughout the world for having served
the country. They should take pride in their country.
Run! For genius‟ sacred flame
Awaits the artist‟s crowning
Spreading far and wide the fame
Throughout the sphere proclaiming
With trumpet the mortal‟s name.
• And when the youth answers the call, heaven should be thanked for
the joy of his Motherland, the Philippines. The nationalistic poem
ends with an expression of Rizal‟s deep sense of gratitude:
Oh, joyful, joyful day,
For you, fair Philippines!
The Almighty blessed be
Who, with loving eagerness
Sends you lucks and happiness.

14. “To the Flowers of Heidelberg”
• Fascinated by the beauty of German spring and a feeling
of nostalgia, Rizal found inspiration in the beauty of the
blooming flowers and the fragrance of the woods. This
inspiration gave birth to a touching poem entitled, “To the
Flowers of Heidelberg” which he wrote on April 24, 1886.
• The poem exudes intense love of his native land, a love
which has grown in intensity as he travelled from country
to country. Rizal asked the flowers to imaginatively go to
the Philippines and convey love for his country and loved
ones
Go to my country, exotic flow‟rs,
Sown by the traveler on his path,
And „neath her cerulean skies,
That keep my loves in their bow‟rs,
Tell them about the faith,
For his native land, the pilgrim sighs!

15. • Rizal also asked the flowers to tell the Philippines how on early morning
hours he also thought of his loved ones:
Say thou that when the breeze
That steals away your scents
To you murmurs song of love a-playing
Songs of romance in his native accents.
• Rizal ended his poem by begging the flowers to bestow the Philippines
and those he loved the kisses he gave to the flowers and tell them of
his earnest love:
Bring out thou with thee, oh flow‟rs
Love to all my amours,
Peace to my country with fecund soil
To her women virtue, to her men faith,
To sweet and good beings health
That shelters the home holy and paternal.
When upon the shore you alight,
The kiss on you I press
Place it on the wings of the breeze
That is may go with its flight
And kiss all that I love, adore and caress.

16. “Hymn to Labor”
• Shortly before his second departure for Europe on February
3, 1888, Rizal wrote the poem upon the request of his friends
from Lipa, Batangas in connection with their town fiesta.
• Rizal extolled man‟s labor and industry, singing praise to
labor, of the country, wealth and vigor. He awakened the youth
to be worthy of their elders by following their footsteps.
Teach us ye the laborious work
To pursue your footsteps we wish,
For tomorrow when country calls us
We may be able your task to finish.
And on seeing us the elders will say:
Look, they‟re worthy „f their sires of yore!
Incense does not honor the dead
As does a son with glory and valor.

17. • Rizal stressed the role of labor in keeping up the dignity
of man, keeping the family happy, and the country
strong.
For the labor of man sustains
Fam‟ly, home and Motherland.

18. “My Retreat”
• During his four-year exile in Dapitan, Rizal wrote “My
Retreat” at the request of his mother who was eager to
know how he lived there.
• It is a sentimental, touching and exquisite poem
describing his home and life in lonely Dapitan.
• The imagery and melody of the poem displayed Rizal‟s
descriptive power.
• Here, he betrays no resentment against his unjust exile
for he believed that the day would come when . . . o‟er
brutal force idea would prevail.

19. • Let us listen to his graceful and delightful description of the lot
and the house:
Beside the wide expanse of fine and sandy shore
And at the foot of the green covered mountain
I built my hut in the groove‟s delightful core,
To seek in the woodlands‟ tranquility serene,
Repose for my mind and from my griefs refrain.
Fragile nipa is its roof, bamboo frail its floor,
With rough timber its pillars and its beams are made:
But in the mountain lap in dreams it is laid,
Day and night the sea lulls it and gives it serenade.
• His life in exile is vividly described thus:
Thus in my obscure retreat the days pass by,
From the world where at one time I‟lived, torn away;
For my fortune rare I admire God on high:
A lost pebble, to be clad with moss wish I
To hide from all the gifts I have in me.

20. • There was a holy humility in the life of Rizal who
recounted memories of those whom he loved:
I live with the mem‟ries of those I have loved before,
And their names by others uttered now and then I
hear:
Now some are dead, others think of me no more;
But what does it matter? I live with the thoughts of
yore
And no one can wrest from me the yesteryears.
• Rizal, too, recounted the memory of the love he bore for
one who had forsaken him:
It is my faithful friend which hurts me ne‟er
Which when it sees me and always consoles my soul,
Which in my sleepless night watches me with pray‟r
With me, and in my exile dwells in my sylvan lair,
It alone infuses me with faith when I‟m doubted by
all.

21. • Then Rizal recalled how he left his country full of
bright illusions spending the spring of his life in foreign
lands. Then he returned and cast upon on far-flung rock
with no hope but the memory of the beliefs of a youth
so vigorous and hearty.

22. “The Song of the Traveler”
• On December 17, 1895, Rizal wrote Governor-General
Ramon Blanco. He applied as a physician in the medical
corps of the Spanish army in Cuba. Because of his thought
of travelling again, he wrote the “The Song of the
Traveler”.
• One feels the restlessness of the traveler seeking a
heaven of happiness – but happiness flies as he comes.
• Full of tender thoughts, Rizal described himself as:
A dry leaf that hesitantly flies
And smarched by hurricanes away,
This lives on earth the traveler

23. • Rizal never found happiness outside his own country. He
felt he will die in foreign shores (Cuba) unremembered
by his country for which he greatly suffered
• Looking back at his country, he wrote of his ruined
home (persecution of his family) and lost love (Leonor
Rivera).
To his country the pilgrim will return
And perhaps he will return to his home,
And he‟ll find everywhere all snow and ruins,
Lost love, sepulcher, everything gone.
• Rizal ended his poem by giving himself the push – a
stronger will to travel. He left to others the love and
joys of his native land. There was no more turning back
If he leaves it is to drown his griefs and sorrows.

24. “My Last Farewell”
• Rizal‟s last poem was untitled and unsigned.
• It has come down to us as “My Last Farewell” (Mi Ultimo
Adios), the title given by Mariano Ponce when he read a copy of
the poem.
• The poem was given by Rizal to his sister, Trinidad who came
with Dona Teodora and her daughters, on the eve his
execution, December 29, 1896. It was in a little alcohol cooking
stove and lamp. Rizal whispering in English to Trinidad said:
“There is something in it.”
• The poetry and martyr bade farewell to hid country, his family
and his friends in lines of dignity and grace devoid of
bitterness. His resignation to his fate could be sensed in his
willingness to die for his dearly beloved country he

25. • In reading the poem you could hear two voices speaking.
The first, is the voice of the patriot who gladly offered
his life for love of country.
Farewell, my adored land, region of the sun
caressed,
Pearl of the Orient Sea, our Eden lost,
With gladness I give you my life, sad and repressed;
And where it more brilliant, more fresh and at its
best,
I would still give it to you, for your welfare at most.
Hail! How sweet „tis to fall that fullness you may
acquire

26. • Although Rizal never advocated actual armed revolution,
he pictured battlefields where others willingly gave
their lives in answer to the call of the Motherland
regardless of place, martyrdom, defeat or victory.
• Ardently, even after death, he wanted her to hear his
song, and feel his presence to his “dust” that covers her
earthly space.
• Finally, in bidding her goodbye, he consoled her with the
thought that he was going to a place of faith and
justice.

27. • The second voice of Rizal is found in the last stanza. It is
a voice of a dutiful son, the understanding brother, the
ardent lover and the faithful friend:
Farewell, parents, brothers, beloved by me,
Friends of my childhood, in the home distressed;
Give thanks that now I rest from the wearisome day,
Farewell, sweet stranger, my friend, who brightened
my way;
Farewell, to all I love. To die is to rest.
• Rizal manifested his magnanimity in ending his poem.
Resigned, devoid of remorse and full of tender love, and
understanding compassion, he accepted his fate and
offered his life so that his country might live.
Prophetically, he saw the final victory; he died as he saw
“tints of the sky begin to show and at last announce the

28. • And his humble offering of this new day becomes more
sublime because he sanctified it with sacrificial love:
If you need a hue to dye your matutinal grow,
Pour my blood and at the right moment spread it so,
And gild it with a reflection of your nascent light!