Formalist Criticism: Critique on Reynaldo A. Duque’s Selected Ilokano Poems

Philippines is country with rich literatures that embody the culture and history of the Filipinos. One of the rich sources of literatures is that of the Ilokano people in the Ilocos region of Luzon. However, dearth of critical studies on Ilokano literature is evident. As such, this study analyzed the selected contemporary Ilokano poems of Reynaldo A. Duque using the frameworks of Formalism namely literariness and organic whole. Through content analysis and close reading, the study discovered that Reynaldo A. Duque employed eight literary devices in his poems: persona, tone, mood, rhyme, rhythm, figures of speech, symbolism, imagery, theme and syntax; the meaning of the poem progresses as the eight devices are being decoded; each device gives a clue to the meaning of the poems. Nevertheless, Ilokano literature and text still reveal universal truth specifically on universality of human character or emotions and of the society’s culture; it possesses literary elements.