| Alejandro G. Abadilla | |
| Birth Date: | March 10, 1906 |
| Birth Place: | Rosario, Cavite, Philippine Islands |
| Other Names: | AGA |
| Known For: | Ako ang Daigdig |
Alejandro G. Abadilla (March 10, 1906 – August 26, 1969), commonly known as AGA, was a Filipino poet, essayist, and fiction writer. Critic Pedro Ricarte referred to Abadilla as the father of modern Philippine poetry, and was known for challenging established forms and literature's "excessive romanticism and emphasis on rhyme and meter". Abadilla helped found the Kapisanang Panitikan in 1935 and edited a magazine called Panitikan. His Ako ang Daigdig collection of poems is one of his better-known works.
Abadilla was born to an average Filipino family on March 10, 1906, in Salinas, Rosario, Cavite. He finished elementary school at Sapa Barrio School, then continued for high school education in Cavite City. After graduation, he went abroad and worked for a small printing shop in Seattle, Washington. He edited several sections of the Philippine Digest, Philippines-American Review and established Kapisanang Balagtas (Balagtas' Organization). In 1934, he returned to the Philippines where he finished AB Philosophy at the University of Santo Tomas. Until 1934, he became a municipal councilor of Salinas before shifting to an insurance selling job.
Aside from writing Ako ang Daigdig, Abadilla wrote several poems and a compilation of his works:
According to Pedro Ricarte,[2] Abadilla's major breakthrough in Philippine poetry was when he wrote the poem "Ako ang Daigdig" ("I Am the World") in 1955. Initially, poetry critics rejected the poem since it does not follow the traditional poetry that uses rhyme and meter. In the poem, the repetition of the words ako (I), daigdig (world) and tula (poem) leaves an impression that the poet, Abadilla, is not himself. The speaker of the poem says that he himself, his world of poem and his poems are united as one.[3]