June Clarisse B.

Canguilan
PI 100
#TOTGA: A refection paper on Goodbye to Leonor

It is a known fact that Jose Rizal was a renowned writer; he was known to express his

thoughts, ideas and feelings in writing. Rizal was also a romantic; we could even say he was a

playboy if we choose to set aside subtlety. He had plenty of women in his life, some he even met

in international waters. For some his love was fleeting while others he loved strongly. Though

his life was short-lived he had broken a lot of hearts, even though this may be the case he too got

his heart broken. He got his heart torn to pieces by none other than the „real life‟ Maria Clara:

Leonor Rivera. He was Jose Rizal‟s TOTGA: The One That Got Away. In a poem titled

Goodbye to Leonor, his deep and intense love and affection for Rivera showed, he loved her for

11 years and when she got married to another man he wrote her this poem:

And so it has arrived- the fatal instant,

The dismal injunction of my cruel fate
So it has come at last-the moment, the date,
when I must separate myself from you.

Goodbye, Leonor, goodbye! I take my leave,

Leaving behind with you my lover‟s heart!
Goodbye, Leonor: from here now I depart.
O Melancholy absence! Ah, what pain!

In reading the poem without putting it into context first and putting aside that it was

written by Jose Rizal, you would still be able to tell that it is love poetry for a certain Leonor

from her lover (it is a „her‟ because conventionally, Leonor is a girl‟s name). Rather than the

usual love poetries that are about the happy memories and beautiful love scenarios of the

paramours, this particular one was a farewell poem. Parting words were the main theme of the

literature. The writer conveyed his strong feelings of love with the pain he felt having to be torn
apart from his lover which he expressed through words like: „cruel fate‟, „fatal instant‟ and „what

pain‟. It is a poem filled with sorrow and pain, the persona talking is dejected because his cruel

fate of being separated from his beloved Leonor has taken its toll. The fact that the persona knew

that the moment of separation would come inevitably is even more painful because the torment

of knowing when they are going to be separated is enough to put a person deep in love into the

wallows of sadness. The use of the word „melancholy‟ connotes that the person talking is

experiencing a stronger degree of sadness, he wasn‟t just sad he was melancholic. In terms of the

„sadness meter‟ melancholy is in the gloomier side, it is usually known as sadness for a long

period of time. The poem was beautifully written because, even though it was really short and

didn‟t have a lot of words you can still feel the motions that the writer was trying to convey.

I decided to do some research about Jose Rizal‟s relationship with Leonor Rivera in order

to truly understand the context of the poem. Truth be told, I never really knew much about Jose

Rizal‟s romantic life before I enrolled in P.I. 100 because this is not usually the kind of stuff

taught in high school. In reading the poem and doing a research on it, I got to know more about

the personal life of Rizal. And it honestly, in a way, slightly changed how I view and analyze the

life and works of Rizal. First, I learned to appreciate more how the way Rizal writes his works,

for example in writing his novels he usually incorporates real life people to his characters like

how Leonor Rivera is Maria Clara. Leonor Rivera is Rizal‟s childhood sweetheart he met her

when he was thirteen, just like how Ibarra has known Maria Clara since they were children. The

appearance of Linares in Noli me Tangere, the new fiancé of Maria Clara whom Padre Damaso

chose for her when Ibarra got excommunicated is just like how Leonor Rivera got engaged to

Henry Kipping the man Rivera‟s mother chose for her because she didn‟t want a „filibustero‟ for

a son in law. The strong bond that Maria Clara and Crisostomo Ibarra had even when they were
apart reflects the 11-year relationship of Rizal and Rivera. The love affair of Leonor Rivera and

Jose Rizal where their relationship was cut off because Rivera‟s mother was against it is

mirrored by the tragic love story of Ibarra and Maria Clara in Noli me Tangere with them not

ending up with each other because of the interception of Padre Damaso. It gives me a new way

of analyzing Noli Me Tangere since now, I don‟t only see it as a fictional story written by Rizal

but it now appeals to me as the retelling of Rizal‟s actual life story.

In my readings I found out that Rizal really was so devastated in their separation and

even blamed it to the lack of freedom in the Philippines. When Leonor Rivera got married to

Henry Kipping, Rizal blamed it in the difference of the liberties that he a Filipino was

experiencing and Henry an English man was enjoying. In the poem even though it can be felt

that he was so pained in letting her go, he had to do it he thought that he couldn‟t really love her

completely because he wasn‟t free. He said so himself in his letter to Bluementritt: “ I prefer this

development to our previous situation, …. I must smile and I should not weep. A Filipina should

have preferred the name of Kipping to that of Rizal; an Englishman is a free man and I am not.”

(Rizal, Rizal's Letter to Blumentritt, 1891). He thinks that she would be happier with Kipping

because he could give her all the liberties in life. Upon reading this, I got to understand Jose

Rizal‟s desperate fight for freedom because he thinks that not having liberty is a hindrance for

him not being able to truly love someone. He had to love his country first before having to love

anyone else that‟s why I think he didn‟t pursue his love for Leonor and any other woman

because he was destined to pursue higher ends: fight for freedom for his native country.

The most significant change that happened to me was I learned to analyze literature not

only in its surface but deep to its core as well. „Goodbye to Leonor‟ got me wanting to learn

more about Rizal. I wanted to learn more about the reason why Rizal wrote that for Leonor; I
wanted to know their story. Because this is the only way I could truly understand the message of

the poem. It helped me understand where Rizal was coming from, on why there was so much

pain in his poem, and on what led him to dedicate something this tragic to his beloved Leonor. If

I haven‟t read about the story of Rizal and Leonor, this poem would just be another tragic love

poem stored in my short term memory. From now on, if I were to analyze any form of literature I

would make sure that not only would I study it on the denotative level but I would also dig into

its connotative meanings and do at least gather enough information about the author, the time

and the context were it was written to be able to truly understand the feelings that writers are

trying to convey.

References
Rizal, J. (1891). Goodbye to Leonor. Retrieved July 10, 2018, from Jose Rizal:
https://joserizal.com

Rizal, J. (1891, June 19). Rizal's Letter to Blumentritt. In L. M. Guerrero, The First Filipino (p.
240). Manila: National Historical Commission.