Waray Literature and Kimball’s Critique of Contradictions in Eagleton’s Work

VI

From Dunkin Donuts, I hopped on a multicab (one of those small light trucks used for public transport in the Philippines) headed for Kassel City Subdivision. Kassel is a place of big trees with roots sunk deep into the ground, flocks of different birds hovering near my apartment, and a hill just nearby. It was evening when I picked up Bagulaya’s book again at page 277.

Reading it made one thing clear: in poetry, language is not just used to share information or facts; it is used to create beauty, emotion, and depth. Metaphors are used openly and as the main tool of expression. They stand out, draw attention, and become the heart of what the poem is trying to say. Readers notice them immediately, and they are essential to understanding and enjoying the work.

These are the final lines from Victor Sugbo’s “This Anticipation for Poetry”, translated from his Waray poem “An Paghinulat han Siday.”O how long it is taking for the moon to comeNo matter how often crossed is the Kankabatok This chasing after the moonIs no guarantee that you will bathe in moonshine. (277)VII

In his book Poetry and Language: The Linguistics of Verse, Michael Ferber wrote: Metaphor seems most at home in poetry. Many would say it provides poetry’s best and most distinctive furniture… [M]ost readers and writers would agree that metaphor counts as one of the characteristic features of poetry, one of the most salient of poetry’s “family resemblances.” In a “prose poem,” for example, where meter, rhyme, and even line have been abandoned, what keeps it a “poem,” many would say, is its density of figurative language, and especially metaphor. (195)

This passage is making a point about why metaphor feels central to poetry. It’s where metaphor feels natural and expected. “Furniture” = the things that make up the poem, what gives it shape and character. Metaphor is one of the key pieces that makes a poem feel like a poem. It’s distinctive; you don’t find it used the same way in news articles, essays, or instruction manuals.

Borrowing from Wittgenstein, “family resemblances” are traits that members of a group share without any single trait being required for all of them. Metaphor is one of those traits for poetry. Most poems have it, and when they do, it’s a strong signal that you’re reading poetry. A prose poem drops the usual poetic markers – no meter, no rhyme, no line breaks. It looks like a paragraph.

So what makes it a poem and not just a short piece of prose? For many readers, it’s the density of figurative language, especially metaphor. That’s what keeps it in the “poetry” family even when all the other features are gone.

VIII

Bagulaya discussed Eagleton only briefly, offering no detailed analysis of his ideas. To gain further insight into Eagleton’s views and philosophy, I conducted online research and found an article written by Kimball.

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This comparison shows the sharp contrast between Kimball’s and Eagleton’s ideas.  

On New Criticism & Tradition Kimball defends traditional culture, established values, and the idea that great literature has permanent, universal meaning. In Tenured Radicals, he criticizes thinkers like Eagleton and the whole field of modern literary theory for attacking tradition, destroying academic standards, and turning literature into just another tool for political arguments.

For Kimball, New Criticism was good because it focused on the text itself and preserved the value of great works. On the Purpose of Education and Criticism states that education’s job is to pass down knowledge, wisdom, and culture. Kimball sees theorists like Eagleton as “radicals” who want to change the classroom into a place for protest or ideology, ruining learning. On Meaning and Language Holds that language and literature do have stable meanings.

Kimball dislikes theories (like those Eagleton promotes) that say meaning changes based on who is reading it or their social background. Bagulaya only mentioned Eagleton briefly, so I researched further. I found Kimball’s article, which presents the opposite view: while Eagleton critiques New Criticism for being politically conservative and disconnected from reality, Kimball attacks Eagleton and modern theory for being too political and destroying traditional literary values. Their debate centers on whether literature should be seen as an independent work of art or as something deeply connected to society, history, and power.

X

I usually read at the Leyte Samar Heritage Center bookstore, Dunkin’ Donuts, or at home in Kassel City Subdivision. I love reading Waray poems by modernist writers. As a reader, it’s the density of figurative language, especially metaphor. That’s what keeps it in the “poetry” family even when all the other features are gone.

Works Cited

Bagulaya, Jose Duke. Writing Literary History: Mode of Economic Production and Twentieth Century Waray Poetry,  University of the Philippines Press, 2006.

Ferber, Michael. Poetry and Language: The Linguistics of Verse, Cambridge University Press, 2019.

Kimball, Roger. “The Contradictions of Terry Eagleton.” The New Criterion, vol. 9, no. 1, 1990, p. 24.

SHORT BIOGRAPHY

Fhen M.’s essay “Waray Literature and Kimball’s Critique of Contradictions in Eagleton’s Work” appears in Synchronized Chaos, an interdisciplinary journal focused on art, music, culture, science, and literature. Literary Heist also publishes his prose “Disaster, Evil, and Moral Truth in Henry James: Genotiva’s Analysis .” From 2016 to 2017, he worked as an academic writer at Zeveral Academic Consultants Inc. in Pasig City, Metro Manila. During his tenure, his team leader gifted him a copy of the 2014 animated film The Prophet, adapted from Kahlil Gibran’s 1923 book. The film follows Mustafa, a poet and activist under house arrest in Ottoman-era Lebanon, as he engages in profound conversations with the townspeople on topics like work, love, and death. One of Gibran’s notable poems featured in the film is “On Work”.