STONEHENGE

• Stonehenge


  A prehistoric landmark located in Wiltshire, England
• Rio Alma is the author of the poem "Stonehenge"
• Rio Alma's full name is Virgilio S. Almario
• Rio Alma was born on March 9, 1944 and originated in Bulacan, Manila
• Rio Alma is a poet, literary historian, and critic
• Rio Alma wrote "Stonehenge" to offer a new perspective that was not seen in his other works such as "Makinasyon", "Pereginasyon", and "Muli"
• Rio Alma is also a translator, he translated famous works from the Philippines' national hero, Jose Rizal, namely "Noli Me Tangere" and "El Filibusterismo"
• Rio Alma: 'I chose this instead of Windsor or My Fair Lady!'
• Rio Alma: 'To measure, with some exactitude, our distance from ourselves'
• Stonehenge


  • Monument of a hundred and one first-born chunk of rock face
  • Great gallery of stone
• Stonehenge was built by the ancestors of the author, who are described as "great little giants with the strength of a thousand dinosaurs and the knowledge of gods"
• The stones of Stonehenge were carved out, pushed and pulled across ridges, slopes, gorse, pine forests, and dense groves to stand in a circle in the middle of the Salisbury plain
• More than half of the original Stonehenge stones are gone or have been stolen, some have fallen among the grass, but the rest are upright like warriors standing their ground until felled
• The poem questions what drove the stone-age consciousness to devote life and lives to Stonehenge over a thousand years
• The poem suggests that the builders of Stonehenge may have simply wanted to imitate the mountain, and that their poet-king had a dream of making a mountain, which they then worked together to make real
• The poem compares Stonehenge to the turtle who wanted to be like the heron, and suggests that life is a game of flight and fetters that we should not leave to the decree of the stars, but entrust to the light of prayer and faith, or the newfangled and harsh lenses and scalpels of science
• As the author circles the remaining stones of Stonehenge, the stones and meadow seem stunned in silence, and the author sees a parade of pestilence and wars of our own making, issuing from the hard surface of the stones
• The poem ends with the image of Proteus astride his dolphins, shifting shape to avoid uttering the truth he should have said long ago, to remind us of the loss of paradise among fish