Critical Discussions of Cirilo's Works

Bautista’s poetry, at its best, is musical, without many consonantals

in the alliterative sections, but with firm, resonant end rrhymes.

He is one of a very rare group of Filipino poets that can use full, half

and slant rhymes without descending to doggerel or becoming

silly of half-baked—a real achievement.  —Ricaredo Demetillo

 

This monumental work [The Archipelago] which is not easy to laud

completely, as is the case with the major, foundation-shaking works,

promises a new poetics, which engages the full responding faculties

of any reader by giving free play to the creative imagination at its

most inventive and most agile, and by treating experiences

more lively, more intensely by taking stock of the role of history

in the life of the artist, and specifically, in the life of any other man. 

—Ophelia Alcantara Dimalanta

 

This is Bautista’s Telex Moon, the second book in his planned

Trilogy of Saint Lazarus.  We should all delight in its unmistakable

triumph. It is a masterwork, asserting once again that Bautista

has no peer within the often times fragmented realm of current

Philippine poetry.  —Alfred A. Yuson

 

Bautista’s principal difference from other poets lies in the extension

of his vision across the centuries and in the variety of verse forms

used to individualize that vision’s evolution.

—Leonard Casper

 

One cannot read The Archipelago and not look at contemporary

events with a more dispassionate and more penetrating

perception.  —Elizabeth Perkins, Australian critic

 

In 1991, when I was reading all of Bautista’s poems, including a

number that he chose not to include in earlier collections, I was

aware that, to represent his poetry in a Native Clearing,

I would have to respond, not to what I might take as his principal

ideas but rather, to his experience as a poet of our own historical

place and time… I was so deeply moved by the poet’s experience

of our history in his bones that, after I had made a selection of

Bautista’s poems for A Native Clearing, I felt my response could

best be delivered as a poem. I called it “That Space in Time.

—Gemino H. Abad

 

This [Stories] is a remarkable collection of five short stories by

one of the most respected poets of the Philippines. 

—Paulino Lim, Jr.

 

Bautista is still, il miglior fabbro.  —Eric Gamalinda

 

 

On Cirilo F. Bautista & His Works: Published Reviews & Citations

 

Collection of Studies/Criticism on Cirilo F. Bautista and His Works

(1969-1995)

Cruz, Isagani R. and David Jonathan Bayot. Reading Cirilo F. Bautista.

Manila: De La Salle University Press, 1995.

 

Recent Newspapers’ Reviews of the Works of Cirilo F. Bautista

Yuson, Alfred. “An Ocean of an Epic.” Philippine Star. Apr 16, 2001.

Yuson, Alfred. “Review: Bullets and Roses.” “Philippine Star.”

Mar 24, 2003.

De Vera, Ruel S. “Being Amado V. Hernandez.” Philippine Daily Inquirer.

May 19, 2003.

Godinez, Ortega Christine. “Breaking the Silences of History.” Philippine

Daily Inquirer. Dec 8, 2002.

 

Santos, Tomas. “The Philippines as Epic History.” Today. Aug 19, 2001.

Chua, Johannes L. “Cirilo F. Bautista: A Writer’s Writer.” Manila Bulletin,

Dec 11, 2004.

 

Chancoco, Jose Jason L. “Way of the Quicksilver (Book Review:

Galaw ng Asoge.)”  Makata Vol 5. Sep 14, 2004.

Timbol, Ethel S. “Litterateur Cirilo Bautista Launches Epic Trilogy.”

Manila Bulletin. Apr 2, 2001.

Veronika, Aurora. “Ang Paglalakbay sa Galaw ng Asoge.” Inquirer Libre.

Sep 6, 2004

 

Selected Articles and Essays Citing Cirilo F. Bautista and His Works

Abad, Gemino H. “One Hundred Years of Philippine Poetry.” Likhaan

Anthology of Philippine Literature in English. 1998.

Reyes, Soledad S. “Reckoning with the Past. Understanding the Present.”

Sanghaya. 2002.

De Ungria, Ricardo. “Philippine Literature in English.” NCAA Online.

Lumbera, Bienvenido. “Young Writers Dream of Going Canonical.”

Sanghaya. 2001.

 

Yuson, Alfred. “The Most Charming Books of 2001.” Philippine Star.

Jan 6, 2001.

 

“Manila Critics Circle and the National Book Awards.” NCAA Online. 

 

Tejuco, Felicisimo A., Jr. “Cirilo Bautista: Poet in Labor.” The Varsitarian

Literary Magazine. 2000.

 

Recent News Articles on Cirilo F. Bautista

Galan, Ralph Semino. “Love’s Centenary.” Philippine Daily Inquirer. Dec 5, 2004.

Melendez, Eric. “Grudge Videoke Match and other ‘Unwriterly’ Episodes.”

Philippine Daily Inquirer. Dec 5, 2004.

“Bautista’s New Novel Out.” Philippine Star. Jul 18, 2004.

“Bautista’s New Novel Now Available.” Daily Tribune. May 30, 2004.

Teodoro, John Iremil. “Pahinga.” Bandillo ng Palawan Online. May 30, 2004.

“Cirilo Bautista Releases New Novel.” Sunday Times Magazine. May 16, 2004.

“Bautista’s New Novel Now Available.” Malaya. May 6, 2004.

“Bautista’s New Novel Out.” Manila Bulletin. May 1, 2004.

Cimatu, Frank. “Eating and Licking the Poems of Others.” Sun Star Baguio.

Aug 24, 2003.

 

“Cirilo Bautista Launches New Book Today.” Philippine Star. Jun 28, 2003.

 

“Poet Cirilo Bautista Launches Latest Book.” Manila Bulletin. Jun 21, 2003.

 

Melendez, Paolo Enrico. “The Veneracion Hotel’s ‘Theater of the Absurd’.”

Philippine Daily Inquirer. Jun 6, 2004.