CAHSS Faculty Articles
The Poet and the Garden: The Green World of Bienvenido N Santos
Publication Title
World Literature Written in English
ISSN
1744-9855
Publication Date
1989
Abstract
Excerpt
In two lines of "Gift Bearers," one of his most impressive poems, Bienvenido N. Santos, of the Philippines' greatest living authors, symbolically presents his world-view: "... a happy valley where a wounded stag/Lies down to dies under poplars flecked by morning" (70). The paradox of these two lines, that a valley can be happy even when a wounded stag lies down to die in it, is explained by "flecked." Santos, like Hopkins, sees beauty and order in dappled and mottled scenes.1 Though life contains both dark and light, evil and good, tragic and comic aspects, it ultimately forms a pattern.2 Life is not random; however, mixed blessings of a checkered design are, there is a design.
DOI
10.1080/17449858908589092
Volume
29
Issue
1
NSUWorks Citation
Grow, L. M. (1989). The Poet and the Garden: The Green World of Bienvenido N Santos. World Literature Written in English, 29 (1) https://doi.org/10.1080/17449858908589092
