Military milieu in poetry

Abstract

Poetry has a home in a military school. Generally, cadets at the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) are pictured as stiff people. But unknown to others, cadets also have a heart to appreciate what is beautiful and what is literary as reflected in their poetry. This study aims to know the military culture in PMA. This study brings out the language commonly used by the PMA Cadets, the practices, events, and values cadets have at Philippine Military Academy. The study unfolds some terms in cadet lingo and some practices in the Philippine Military Academy, Baguio City. Through this research, civilians will know more about PMA and its cadets. Lastly, a teaching guide is designed for civilian faculty in PMA to teach language, literature, and culture through cadets poetry. Through this research, some military cultures will be discussed through lexico-semantic and syntactical stylistic devices. This study was an attempt to analyze cadets poetry through cultural and stylistic perspectives. Specifically, this study attempted to explore and ferret out answers to the following questions: 1. What military culture is reflected in the selected poems? 2. How do the stylistic aspects portray military culture along:2 a. lexico-semantic stylistic devices b. syntactical stylistic devices?. To answer these questions, the researcher made use of the descriptive-content analysis research method. Specifically, sociological approach, stylistic approach, formalism, moral-philosophical approach, and psychoanalytic criticism were employed to analyze and to give light to the problems of this study. The following are the major findings of the study: 1. Military terms such as corps, plebe, underclassmen, squad leaders, mess, dash, and high, doze, attitude and ten counts, morale, rotting, bok, like hell, deficient and Strong Men's Club, Special Forces are some of the terms usually used by cadets at Philippine Military Academy, Character, Academics, Military, and Physical (CAMP), Curriculum, military training and discipline, Summer Camp, Reception Day, military courtesy, Recognition Rites are some of the military practices. The military values of courage, integrity, followership, love of country, leadership, pride, indebtedness, survivalism, determination, solidarity, drivenness, and romantic spirit are reflected in the selected poems. 2. Through lexico-semantic stylistic devices such as alliteration, personification, consonance, simile, foregrounding, antonymy, code-switchoing, military cultures were used. Through syntactical stylistic devices such as anaphora, parallelism, enumeration, question in the narrative, and aposiopesis, military cultures were highlighted. In light of the findings of the study, the following are the conclusions: 1. Cadets poetry is a body of literary works that mirrors some military cultures of cadets at Philippine Military Academy, Baguio City. 2. Lexico-semantic stylistic devices and syntactical stylistic devices can be considered as gateways for military cultures in poetic writing. In relation with the findings and conclusions of this research, the following are recommended: 1. A study that highlights cadet songs be conducted which can be another conduit to understand the way of life of PMA Cadets. 2. The researcher recommends the promotion of literary studies that highly promote local cultures by choosing literary texts penned by Filipino writers.