Also known as Naty, Natividad Marquez was a Filipino writer, poet, educator, and lay missionary. She was born in February 1901 in Tayabas City, Quezon. She was the daughter of Gregorio Lopez Marquez and Maria Nicomedes Jurado. She died in 1956 at the age of 55. She is known for her poems, the most popular of which include The Little Sampaguita and The Sea.
Poems:
The Little Sampaguita
Little sampaguita,
With the wandering eye,
Did a tiny fairy
Drop you where you lie?
In the witching hour
Of a tropic night,
Did a careless moonbeam
Leave you in its flight?
The Sea
Why does the sea laugh, Mother,
As it glints beneath the sun?
It is thinking of the joys, my child,
That it wishes every one.
Why does the sea sob so, Mother,
As it breaks on the rocky shore?
It recalls the sorrows of the world.
And weeps forevermore.
Why is the sea so peaceful, Mother,
As if it were fast asleep?
It would give our tired hearts, dearest child,
The comfort of the deep.
