
FROM NOLI’S DEDICATION
by Luis G. Dato A foul disease our nation’s body tears Apart, and from the torture wild with pain, The nation struggles utterly, in vain A curse on her has fallen unawares! The wound grows deeper, and no mortal dares…
Filipino Poet, Writer and Educator
by Luis G. Dato A foul disease our nation’s body tears Apart, and from the torture wild with pain, The nation struggles utterly, in vain A curse on her has fallen unawares! The wound grows deeper, and no mortal dares…
by Luis G. Dato My blood is Titanic in soul and in spirit, Rajah blood I inherit, Which tumultuous will down through my arteries beat, It is turbulence toned to hysterical war, It is flame from the fumes of volcanoes…
by Luis G. Dato Well, then, I must tell how much I adore you, And tell that I love you with all my heart, That much do I suffer, that much I deplore you And now I can’t bear it,…
by Luis G. Dato O Psyche immortal, fluttering unseen, Who hither from the dim abysses came To dower on my being what has been Of its statuary of flesh, the flame. I see you rise aglow with morning fire, And…
by Luis G. Dato To see my feverish hours Pass by so slowly, Who would beside me sit, My bed so lowly? And when with tremulous hand, I’m nigh the end, O who would clasp it then, What kindly friend?…
by Luis G. Dato “The Child shall be my own,” the moon in tender And venomous commiseration saith, “And she shall take the loveliness of death, Death’s countenance, her raiment of pale splendour; Body and soul to me she shall…
by Luis G. Dato Upon a Jewess’ couch an evening once, A ghost beseeming by the side of one Thought wandered from that flesh whence soul had flown, To one who might have on me brought romance. And then her…
by Luis G. Dato Quite often sailors shoot the albatross, And bring them down with infidel delight, Huge birds that trail the ships the sea across, With cloud-like pinions quivering in flight, Fallen on deck, and barely left alone, They…
by Luis G. Dato I have a dream too sharp and strange for name, Of one who loves me and for whom I yearn, A changing dream, yet somehow still the same, Companion to my fancy’s every turn. She understands…
By Luis G. Dato Up north beside Lepanto wild and far, By high Kabakan’s slopes a trail zigzags Its way across a wilderness and drags A weight of stones and memories of war. No forest creeping out shall hide of…
By Luis G. Dato Austere commander of the iron hand, Who marshalled men to trample fields of war, Who wielded well both pen and scimitar, Each word a call, each sword flash a command. Who stood as guard to Aguinaldo’s…
By Luis G. Dato Plebian Sire, who Freedom’s bolo drew, Whose cry to battle death to tyrant’s told, Whose hero soul can still our conscience hold With the same power that Tondo’s rebels knew. Who rose compelling high among the…