Day and Night by Amador T. Daguio (Poem) - Literary and Critical Analysis

Drunk with the cries of birds, I greet the day
And watch its passing with joy's brimming cup.
The moss is on the tree, the rich boughs sway
In pendulums of fruitage down and up.
But richer is the breast which breaks its strings
To play dance music of bright rain of leaves,
The leaning winds, the billowing grass, wings
Troop in my heart, the sea alone now grieves.

O beauty in that rift of cloud! O sails
Which butterfly the sea! For the soul's sake
Let fall no twilight; leave no far trails
Of silence! Let my grateful heart ache
No more for having what are mine to see ---
A petal's fall, five stars caught in a tree!

Notes and Analysis


- Why is the title of the poem "Day and Night"? - If you read the poem, it begins with morning sceneries. The whole of the first stanza is composed of descriptions of a good morning. In the second stanza, the poem talks about twilight and stars. I'm thinking maybe that's why Daguio titled his peom as such.

- What is the theme of the poem? - It's about nature and its undying beauty. This beauty is deserving of everyone's admiration. Daguio is telling the reader to appreciate what nature is to offer. To notice the moss on the trees, the fruits swaying on tree boughs, the green leaves, the grasses that billow, the winds that lean, etc.

- What does the second stanza mean? - I think that in a way, the narrator is lamenting the arrival of twilight and then eventually darkness. It aches his heart to see twilight fall and hear petals from flowers fall. That notwithstanding, the narrator still ends the poem with an ode to the beauty of nature - "five stars caught in a tree".