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Angela Manalang
Gloria's "To the Man
I Married"
Updated on January 28, 2020

Linda Sue Grimes

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Poetry became my passion, after I fell in love with

Walter de la Mare's "Silver" in Mrs. Edna Pickett's
sophomore English class, circa 1962.
Angela Manalang Gloria

Source

Introduction and Text of Poem

In the first part of Angela Manalang Gloria’s “To the
Man I Married,” the poet has followed the traditional
form of an English (also called, Elizabethan or
Shakespearean) sonnet, as she has her speaker
express her deep feelings for her husband.
The second part of Gloria’s “To the Man I Married”
features only two quatrains, dispensing with the couplet
as it narrows each line, seeming to concentrate the
message as the poem grows shorter.
To the Man I Married
I
You are my earth and all the earth implies:
The gravity that ballasts me in space,
The air I breathe, the land that stills my cries
For food and shelter against devouring days.
You are the earth whose orbit marks my way
And sets my north and south, my east and west,
You are the final, elemented clay
The driven heart must turn to for its rest.
If in your arms that hold me now so near
I lift my keening thoughts to Helicon
As trees long rooted to the earth uprear
Their quickening leaves and flowers to the sun,
You who are earth, O never doubt that I
Need you no less because I need the sky!
II
I cannot love you with a love
That outcompares the boundless sea,
For that were false, as no such love
And no such ocean can ever be.
But I can love you with a love
As finite as the wave that dies
And dying holds from crest to crest
The blue of everlasting skies.
Reading of "To the Man I Married"
Angela Manalang Gloria & Husband

Source
Commentary
This poem metaphorically portrays the love of the
speaker for her husband by comparing her need for
him to her need for the earth.
Part I
Part I of Angela Manalang Gloria’s “To the Man I
Married” follows the traditional form of an English (also
called, Elizabethan or Shakespearean) sonnet.
First Quatrain: He Means Everything to Her
You are my earth and all the earth implies:
The gravity that ballasts me in space,
The air I breathe, the land that stills my cries
For food and shelter against devouring days.
The speaker begins with a daring statement, as she
addresses her husband lovingly, telling him he is
everything to her. With this claim, the speaker also
begins her metaphorical comparison of her need for
both her husband and the planet on which she lives. In
the opening line, she has declared that her need for the
earth has implications.
As an inhabitant of the earth, she requires certain
necessities to sustain life. The earth’s gravity keeps the
speaker's body from hurtling off into space. Its
atmosphere provides her lungs with air to breathe. The
fertile soils place before her the space to grow her food,
while they also offers up building materials to erect a
dwelling that will shelter her from the elements. Just as
the earth provides these sustaining items, her husband
also supports her by sharing his wealth, love, and
affection for her.
Second Quatrain: He Gives Her Direction
You are the earth whose orbit marks my way
And sets my north and south, my east and west,
You are the final, elemented clay
The driven heart must turn to for its rest.
In the second quatrain, the speaker avers that her
husband gives her life direction. As the earth alerts her
to the four directions of north, south, east, and west, he
husband’s place in sharing her life serves to mark
milestones as they reach them in the marriage. The
speaker then reveals a somewhat startling comparison:
just as the earth will offer her body a place to rest after
the soul has left it, her husband offers that soul rest
while she is still in the body.
Third Quatrain: He Is Her Gravity
If in your arms that hold me now so near
I lift my keening thoughts to Helicon
As trees long rooted to the earth uprear
Their quickening leaves and flowers to the sun,
Even as the speaker needs her husband and the earth,
there is also one other entity that she must lovingly
include in her basket of needs. Her husband holds her
close in a loving embrace as the earth’s gravity
embraces and keeps her on the planet. Still she admits
that at times she may "lift [her] keening thoughts to
Helicon," the river that disappeared underground after
the women with blood-stained hands from killing
Orpheus attempted to wash that blood away in its
innocent waters.
Acknowledging the nurturing, close relationship she
has with her husband and the earth, she knows that
she also must pay tribute to other specific natural
elements. Thus she metaphorically asserts her
relationship with the waters of earth as flowers and
leaves of trees upturn to the sky.
The Couplet: Necessity of the Sky
You who are earth, O never doubt that I
Need you no less because I need the sky!
The speaker avers that she needs the earth, but her
needs also extend to the sky. In that need, she
becomes a child of the sky, just as the earth itself is,
along with the trees that require sunlight for existence.
The necessity for the sky does not diminish her love
and appreciation for her husband and the earth. She
avers that she "need[s] [them] no less than [she]
need[s] the sky."
Part II
The second part of Gloria’s “To the Man I Married”
features two quatrains.
First Quatrain: No Desire to Exaggerate
I cannot love you with a love
That outcompares the boundless sea,
For that were false, as no such love
And no such ocean can ever be.
The speaker reveals her desire not to exaggerate the
status of her feelings for her husband as she has
metaphorically compared her love for him to be similar
to the affection she harbors for the earth.
In what might sound somewhat contradictory, the
speaker asserts that she cannot really compare her
love for her husband to the ocean, because the ocean
is too expansive and such a comparison would be
false.
Second Quatrain: The Earth and Beyond
But I can love you with a love
As finite as the wave that dies
And dying holds from crest to crest
The blue of everlasting skies.
Because the speaker has already compared him
metaphorical to the earth, it might seem somewhat
confusing to find her claiming that the ocean is too
large to make a target of comparison work.
Nevertheless, she does decide that she can compare
that love to the waves, which are part of the ocean. And
those waves reflect the blue of the skies.
 Gloria's Complete Poems

Source

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

© 2015 Linda Sue Grimes

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TO THE MAN I MARRIED

Friday, 13 December 2013

Angela Manalang Gloria

Angela Manalang Gloria

Angela Manalang-Gloria (1907–1995) was a Filipina poet in the English language.

Early life
Angela Caridad Legaspi Manalang was born on August 2, 1907 in Guagua, Pampanga to parents, Felipe
Dizon Manalang (born in Mexico, Pampanga) and Tomasa Legaspi (whom she hardly mentions).
However, their family later settled in the Bicol region, particularly in Albay. Caring—as she is fondly
called—studied at St. Agnes Academy in Legaspi, where she graduated valedictorian in elementary. In
her senior year, she moved to St. Scholastica's College in Malate, Manila, where her writing started to get
noticed.

Angela Manalang was among the first generation female students at the University of the Philippines.
Angela initially enrolled in law, as suggested by her father. However, with the advice of her professor C.V.
Wickers, who also became her mentor, she eventually transferred to literature.
Writing
It was also during her education at the University of the Philippines that she and poet, Jose Garcia
Villa developed a lifelong rivalry. Both poets vied for the position of literary editor of The Philippine
Collegian, which Manalang eventually held for two successive years. In her junior year, she was quietly
engaged to Celedonio Gloria whom she married. She graduated summa cum laude with the degree
of Ph.B. in March 1929.

After graduation, Manalang-Gloria worked briefly for the Philippine Herald Mid-Week Magazine. However,
this was cut short when she contracted tuberculosis.

Achievements
She was the author of Revolt from Hymen, a poem protesting against marital rape, which caused her
denial by an all-male jury from winning the Philippine's Commonwealth Literary Awards in 1940. She was
also the author of the poetry collection, Poems, first published in 1940 (and revised in 1950). The
collection contained the best of her early work as well as unpublished poems written between 1934-1938.
Her last poem, Old Maid Walking on a City Street can also be found in the collection. This book was her
entry to the Commonwealth Literary Awards, losing to Rafael Zulueta y da Costa’s verse Like the Molave.

Personal life
On March 11, 1945, her husband Celedonio and her son Ruben were attacked by a Japanese patrol
in Alitagtag, Batangas. Though her husband died, Ruben was able to survive, yet his trauma had been so
severe that he could not bring himself to recount the attack. This event left Manalang-Gloria a young
widow with three children to support, which forced her to abandon writing and enter the abaca business,
which she successfully managed.

Unknown at 04:03
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 TO THE MAN I MARRIED
Friday, 13 December 2013

TO THE MAN I MARRIED

by Angela Manalang Gloria

I cannot love you with a love

That outcompares the boundless sea,
For that were false, as no such love
And no such ocean can ever be.

But I can love you with a love

as finite as the wave that dies
And dying, holds from the crest to crest
The blue of everlasting skies.

Summary:
For me the summary of this poem is that the wife was telling that she cannot love his husband
like the boundless sea, she was telling that her love is not a forever love/ forever feelings to his
husband like a endless /boundless sea.

Lines:
"I cannot love you with a love
That outcompares the boundless sea. "
- it means she cannot love his husband like the boundless sea, she was telling that her love is not a
forever love/ forever feelings to his husband like a endless /boundless sea.
"For that were false, as no such love
And no such ocean can ever be."
-For me, it means that their false are no such love and no such ocean can ever be.

"But I can love you with a love

as finite as the wave that dies"
-For me, it means that she can love him but its is only finite like the waves when it dies. her love is
not infinite.

"And dying, holds from the crest to crest

The blue of everlasting skies. "
-For me, until they dye they still hold each other and the blue of everlasting skies will appear.

Figurative Speech:

"as finite as the wave that dies"

- it is simile because it uses "as" .

-For me, the figurative speech uses in this poem are simile and metaphor.

Symbol:

For me, the symbol in this poem is LOVE. :)

My own opinion:

My own opinion in this poem is that the girl/wife is slightly true because every feelings of a person can
change anytime but not all the time the feelings can change. But you should make sure that you really
love that person. :)

Theme:
 Sometimes feelings can be change but if you make an decision you should make sure your feelings,
your LOVE can't be easily be faded.

"Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. -Oscar
Wilde "

Unknown at 03:46
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Worn Ideals
Ideals: thoughts that endured the passing of time, the journey of life and the touch of
influence. For truth hides itself in its own end; only in hindsight does it reveal itself, a
formless figure. Thus, truth must not be sought but, rather, meaning.
Saturday, July 13, 2013

To The Man I Married by Angela Manalang-Gloria

(Filipino Translation and Analysis )
A Philippine Literature course activity, translating the poem: To The Man I Married.

The instructions didn't include adding a meter; only rhymes were necessary. However, I went ahead and
gave my translation both rhyme and meter.
(I do not claim ownership of the poem "To The Man I Married")

Original:
 TO THE MAN I MARRIED

by Angela Manalang-Gloria

You are my earth and all the earth implies:

The gravity that ballasts me in space,

The air I breathe, the land that stills my cries

For food and shelter against devouring days.

You are the earth whose orbit marks my way

And sets my north and south, my east and west,

You are the final, elemented clay

The driven heart must turn to for its rest.

If in your arms that hold me now so near

I lift my keening thoughts to Helicon

As trees long rooted to the earth uprear

Their quickening leaves and flowers to the sun,

You who are earth, O never doubt that I

Need you no less because I need the sky!

II
I can not love you with a love

That outcompares the boundless sea,

For that were false, as no such love

And no such ocean can ever be.

But I can love you with a love

As finite as the wave that dies

And dying holds from crest to crest

The blue of everlasting skies.

 Filipino Translation:

SA LALAKING PINAKASALAN KO

Ni Angela Manalang-Gloria

Ikaw ang aking mundo at ang lahat nitong hinihiwatig:

Ang grabidad na nagpapapirmi sa akin sa kalawakan,

Ang hanging nilalanghap, ang lupang sa iyak ay nagpapatid

Para sa pagkai’t silong laban sa mga araw na sakmalan.

Ikaw ang mundo na ang daangtala’y takda sa aking daan

At nagtaktakda ng hilaga’t timog, silanga’t kanluran ko,

Ikaw ang elementadong luad na s’yang kahulihulihan

Kung saan lumiliko’t nagpapahinga ang pagod na puso.

Kung sa iyong mga bisig na hawak ako ngayong kay lapit

Sa Helicon itaas ko ang panaghoy ng saloobin ko

Tulad ng mga punong baon sa mundo’t patungo ay langit

At mga dahon at bulaklak nilang sa araw ang patungo,

Ikaw na siyang mundo, ay huwag pagdudahan na may patid

Ang hal’ga mo sa’kin ‘pagkat kailangan ko rin ang himpapawid!

II

‘Di kita kayang mahalin na may pag-ibig

Na hinihigit ang dagat na walang hanggan,

‘Pagkat huwad ito, waring walang pag-ibig

At walang gayong dagat na walang hangganan.

Ngunit ma’ring mahalin kitang may pag-ibig

Na kasing hanggan ng mga alo’ng namamatay

At abot-diling kapit sa galugod na higpit

Ang asul ng langit na ‘di mamamatay.

ANALYSIS:

To The Man I Married is not wholly a poem regarding the love of a wife to his husband. On the
contrary, it describes more in detail the limitations placed by the husband to his wife: the domestication
of women. He gives everything she needs and because of this, the wife became dependent on the
husband ("The air I breathe... whose orbit marks my way And sets my north and south...").

Angela Manalang was a graduate of the University of the Philippines, an esteemed university
known for shaping strong, critical and ambitious men and women. As such, it is no wonder that she
would describe her love for her husband in a way that contradicts many poems depicting love for a man
as a perfect, everlasting concept; her love is imperfect and so is her relationship with him ("I can not
love you with a love That outcampares the boundless sea... as no such love... can ever be."). Yes, she
loves him, but as a woman and as a person, she too has her own ambitions and dreams. However, she
can no longer reach these dreams as she is now committed and accustomed to her life as a wife and
mother; she can only look on and try to reach out ("If in your arms that hold me now so near... As trees
long rooted to the earth uprear..."). She speaks of her love as limited, only going as far as the earth may
provide ("As finite as the wave that dies...") and tells the husband that his love is not the only one she
seeks but also her ambition for greater things, though it does not hinder her love for him ("Need you no
less because I need the sky!").

The poem depicts a woman, now accustomed and limited to the reality of marriage, telling her husband
how she loves him in the most realistic description as possible: earthly and mortal. She tells him how,
even when he has provided everything for her, she still longs for the ambitions she needed to abandon
and how, even when she needs her dreams, this does not lessen her love for him.

Sworn Ideal at 7/13/2013 02:18:00 AM

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I love this poem, and I agree with your interpretation.

December 5, 2013 at 8:25 PM
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Sworn Ideal

A student of the University of Santo Tomas in the Philippines. I enjoy writing letters when I'm
not busy calculating numbers.
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