Jose Garcia Villa’s Biography

José García Villa (August 5, 1908 - February 7, 1997) was a Filipino poet, literary critic,
short story writer, and painter. He wasawarded the National Artist of the Philippines title for
literature in 1973, as well as the Guggenheim Fellowship in creativewriting by Conrad Aiken. He
is known to have introduced the "reversed consonance rime scheme" in writing poetry, as well as
theextensive use of punctuation marks especially commas, which made him known as the
Comma Poet. He used thepenname Doveglion (derived from"Dove, Eagle, Lion"), based on the
characters he derived from himself. These animals were alsoexplored by another poet e.e.
cummingsin Doveglion, Adventures in Value, a poem dedicated to Villa.
Villa was born on August 5, 1908, in Manila's Singalong district. His parents were
Simeón Villa (a personal physician of Emilio Aguinaldo, the founding President of the
First Philippine Republic) and Guia Garcia (a wealthy landowner). He graduated from
theUniversity of the Philippines Integrated School and the University of the Philippines High
School in 1925. Villa enrolled on a Pre-Medical course in the University of the Philippines, but
then switched to Pre-Law course. However, he realized that his true passionwas in the arts. Villa
first tried painting, but then turned into creative writing after reading Winesburg, Ohioby
Sherwood Anderson.
Villa's tart poetic style was considered too aggressive at that time. In 1929 he published
Man Songs, a series of erotic poems,which the administrators in UP found too bold and was even
fined Philippine peso for obscenity by the Manila Court of First Instance. Inthat same year, Villa
won Best Story of the Year from Philippine Free Press magazine for Mir-I-Nisa. He also
received P1,000 prizemoney, which he used to migrate to the United States.
He enrolled at the University of New Mexico, wherein he was one of the founders
of Clay, a mimeograph literary magazine. Hegraduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree, and
pursued post-graduate work at Columbia University. Villa had gradually caught theattention of
the country's literary circles, one of the few Asians to do so at that time. 
After the publication of Footnote to Youth in 1933, Villa switched from writing prose to poetry,
and published only a handful ofworks until 1942. During the release of Have Come, Am Here in
1942, he introduced a new rhyming scheme called "reversedconsonance" wherein, according to
Villa: "The last sounded consonants of the last syllable, or the last principal consonant of a
word,are reversed for the corresponding rhyme. Thus, a rhyme for near would be run; or rain,
green, reign."
In 1949, Villa presented a poetic style he called "comma poems", wherein commas are
placed after every word. In the prefaceof Volume Two, he wrote: "The commas are an integral
and essential part of the medium: regulating the poem's verbal density and timemovement:
enabling each word to attain a fuller tonal value, and the line movement to become more
measures.
Villa worked as an associate editor for New Directions Publishing in New York City
between 1949 to 1951, and then becamedirector of poetry workshop at City College of New
York from 1952 to 1960. He then left the literary scene and concentrated onteaching, first
lecturing in The New School|The New School for Social Research from 1964 to 1973, as well as
conducting poetryworkshops in his apartment. Villa was also a cultural attaché to the Philippine
Mission to the United Nations from 1952 to 1963, and anadviser on cultural affairs to the
President of the Philippines beginning 1968.
On February 7, 1997, at the age of 88, Jose was found in a coma in his New York
apartment and was rushed to St. VincentHospital in the Greenwich area. His death two days later
was attributed to "cerebral stroke and multilobar pneumonia". He was buriedon February 10 in
St. John's Cemetery in New York, wearing a Barong Tagalog. On August 5 and 6, 2008, Villa's
centennial celebration began with poem reading at the Jefferson Market Library. For the launch
of Doveglion: Collected Poems, Penguin Classics’ reissue of Villa's poems edited by Villa's
literary trustee John Edwin Cowen, the rewere readings of his poems by Cowen, by book
introducer Luis H. Francia, and by scholar  Tina Chang.Then, the Leonard LopateShowwill
interview Cowen and Francia on the "Pope of Greenwich Village's" life and work, followed by
the Asia Pacific Forum show.
In 1946 Villa married Rosemarie Lamb, with whom he had two sons, Randy and Lance.
They annulled ten years later. He alsohad three grandchildren
Literary Critique
When Dodong went out one night and thought on the life he was leading, he had a 
question in mind:
One of them was why Life did not fulfill all of Youth's dreams. Why it must be so. Why
one was forsaken...after Love... Dodong could not find the answer. Maybe the question was not
to be answered. It must be so to make youth Youth. Youth must be dreamfully sweet. Dreamfully
sweet. Dodong returned to the house humiliated by himself. He had wanted to know a little
wisdom but was denied it.
There, it is conveyed that one's aspirations would have to be forsaken after the stage of
love (marriage). It is said that only the young get to think of how great life could be, and that a
certain era is approaching, existence is complicated, full of difficulties, perhaps unlikely.
However, I would have to differ with that assumption. As mentioned in the narrative, a little
insight was refused to Dodong, thereby indicating that this train of thought is something that
should be modified. The narrative of Jose Garcia Villa is intended as a reminder, as suggested by
the title on its own. Usually a footnote is placed at the bottom of the page, suggesting it's of little
significance compared to the body itself or the message. In that way, a reference becomes more
of an attention grabber, than a primary concern. However, the fact that a footnote is proclaimed
by the title itself indicates purposely that the subtext is what is extremely important throughout
this story. The title is Footnote to Youth automatically implies that the entire story could be the
true footnote. The primary purpose becomes what other writers sometimes overlook or take for
granted (the footnote).
Also, footnotes often indicate additional readings, references, and propose that particular 
words are vital compared to the rest of the text. In this sense alone, the urgency of the themes bei
ng put forward in this story must be acknowledged.
As such, it would be the reality that Dodong's father and Dodong himself, the parents in
this tale, did little to form and influence their sons' lives. Instead of providing advice and insight
focused on their own personal experiences, they both agreed to cede to the wishes of their sons.
The parent's position is vital to shaping the future of an infant, and these parents have abused the
duty by continuing to keep their tongues. As just a consequence, their children suffer and
encountered an awful marriage real-world experience. And that they were married earlier than
usual couples marry, they lack the knowledge and know-how to raise children: therefore, the
implication that they were unable to fulfill their responsibilities as parents to guide their children
along a wiser path. In drag, which becomes a process of mishandling without end. Only Dodong
is refused this knowledge in his attempt to gain a bit of wisdom as he ventures outside to think.
This may be particular so because his father never had that experience either.
These insights can only be conveyed by those individuals who greatly influence our lives-
most of whom are parents of ours. So,
when coping with his son Blas, Dodong was only willing to do what he learned (what his father di
d to him) to encourage Blas to get married early when he should have prevented it instead.
 st
21 Century
Literature from the
Philippines and the
World

Submitted to:
Sir Peejay Gabriel O. Daranciang

Group Members: