Sonnet [Upon these deeps in days remotely old]
Upon these deeps in days remotely old,
A daring band of Malays flung their sails
Intrepidly. On tempests, storms, and gales,
On ocean furies, full their valor told,
Each gust a grave, each grave a tale unscrolled,
A covert pathos of the tongueless wave
For utterance suspiring. O the brave
Unnumbered dead that slumber in their fold!
Some day a bark of light will Hereward glide.
By no one sent, whence no one living knows,
And, breaking centuries of deep repose,
Upgather from the sea the dead who died
In search of it. A gleam these deeps will tear,
And give new life to all that slumbered there.
From Manila: A Collection of Verse (Imp. Paredes, Inc., 1926) by Luis Dato. This poem is in the public domain.
Luis G. Dato
Poet, educator, journalist, and politician Luis G. Dato, one of the first Filipino authors to write and publish in English, was born in Baao, Camarines Sur, Philippines, on July 4, 1906. He was the third of five children born to Eugenio Dato y Espalana and Barbara Guevara y Imperial. His brother, Rodolfo, was also an academic, having served as dean of the University of Nueva Caceres in Naga City, Bicol Region, Philippines, in addition to editing the anthology Filipino Poetry, initially published in 1924.