Henry Lilly
Kim Van Kieu
The first 4 stanzas of this poem are representing the main character Kim Van Kieu, who was made out to be very beautiful except she had ''poor luck and tears of woe". Nguyen Du then explains this by saying that it was because heaven seemed jealous of her good looks. Nguyen Du wrote about morals and humanism and his own suffering which could explain his interest in this story of Kim Van Kieu. He got the story after translating it from Chinese to Vietnamese during one of his military delegation missions. In the poem Nguyen Du describes Heaven with personification by saying "Heaven everywhere seems jealous of the fair of face. Using jealous to describe heaven personifies heaven to highlight how beautiful Kim Van Kieu was in the poem. He uses an interesting stanza division which makes it seem like the speaker is actually talking to the reader. When the poem says "i know," or "i swear," it seems like the speaker/writer is speaking directly to the reader. Surprisingly the tone of the poem is very neutral considering the topic of the poem. The tone makes it seem as if the speaker was casually describing general facts in a neutral tone. The theme of the poem is that, unfortunate events can happen to everybody no matter their looks which is only natural.
-Nguyen Du passed the mandarine exams when he was only 19 years old and got a modest military post under the Le dynasty.
-He was associated with attempts to restore the Le to power but failed and withdrew to the mountains near his native village.
-He was later appointed head of a delegation to Peking where he translated a Chinese novel into Vietnamese poetry as, Kim Van Kieu.
-His poems express his own personal suffering and humanism.
-He is considered to some as the father of Vietnamese poetry and his poems on Kim Van Kieu are considered the peak of Vietnamese literature.
-This picture connects with the poem because it represents a cycle of tragedy that the main character from the story which this poem comes from has to endure. Kim Van Kieu, the main character suffers a lot of tragic events within the span of a couple years shown in the first two stanzas of the poem.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nguyen-Du
The first 4 stanzas of this poem are representing the main character Kim Van Kieu, who was made out to be very beautiful except she had ''poor luck and tears of woe". Nguyen Du then explains this by saying that it was because heaven seemed jealous of her good looks. Nguyen Du wrote about morals and humanism and his own suffering which could explain his interest in this story of Kim Van Kieu. He got the story after translating it from Chinese to Vietnamese during one of his military delegation missions. In the poem Nguyen Du describes Heaven with personification by saying "Heaven everywhere seems jealous of the fair of face. Using jealous to describe heaven personifies heaven to highlight how beautiful Kim Van Kieu was in the poem. He uses an interesting stanza division which makes it seem like the speaker is actually talking to the reader. When the poem says "i know," or "i swear," it seems like the speaker/writer is speaking directly to the reader. Surprisingly the tone of the poem is very neutral considering the topic of the poem. The tone makes it seem as if the speaker was casually describing general facts in a neutral tone. The theme of the poem is that, unfortunate events can happen to everybody no matter their looks which is only natural.
-Nguyen Du passed the mandarine exams when he was only 19 years old and got a modest military post under the Le dynasty.
-He was associated with attempts to restore the Le to power but failed and withdrew to the mountains near his native village.
-He was later appointed head of a delegation to Peking where he translated a Chinese novel into Vietnamese poetry as, Kim Van Kieu.
-His poems express his own personal suffering and humanism.
-He is considered to some as the father of Vietnamese poetry and his poems on Kim Van Kieu are considered the peak of Vietnamese literature.
-This picture connects with the poem because it represents a cycle of tragedy that the main character from the story which this poem comes from has to endure. Kim Van Kieu, the main character suffers a lot of tragic events within the span of a couple years shown in the first two stanzas of the poem.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nguyen-Du
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