Excerpt
Modern Philippine poetry in English originated in the 1920\u27s and began to come of age in the 1930\u27s. Although at the outset the poetry was overly sentimental and imitative, by the mid-1930\u27s several poets had developed their art to a promising degree. Then advancement of Philippine poetry was halted by the Japanese occupation of World Wa r II and by chaotic conditions in the first few post-war years. It was not until the 1950\u27s, therefore, that the poetry finally matured. This curve of development in Philippine letters can be traced in the early works of three of the greatest Philippine writers of the modern period : Bienvenido N . Santos, N . V . M . Gonzalez, and Carlos Bulosan
