Vietnam: What is the sample analysis essay on the poem "Đất Vị Hoàng" for 8th-grade students? Can 8th-grade students participate in the national science and technology competition?

Tu Xuong is one of the eminent satirical poets of the modern era. He was born into a poor Confucian family, lived a frugal life but had a high patriotic spirit. His weapon of resistance was the pen, satirizing the absurdity of the semi-colonial, semi-feudal transitional period. With deep love for his homeland, he left behind many excellent works such as Song Lap, Đất Vị Hoàng. Through the work Đất Vị Hoàng, the poet expressed his mockery of the bad habits in society at that time.

Firstly, "Đất Vị Hoàng" is written in the Thất ngôn bát cú Đường luật form, expressing sorrow for the nation's fate. Vi Hoang is where Tu Xuong was born, a peaceful countryside famous for its specialties. When the invaders arrived, that peaceful countryside became desolate and barren. As a person deeply attached to his homeland, Tu Xuong felt great pain for his hometown, lamenting over the nation’s upheaval. The wrongdoings, "turning white to black," unfolded before his eyes, one pain on top of another. From there, the poem "Đất Vị Hoàng" emerged to denounce the society at that time.

At the beginning of the poem, the poet goes straight to the matter:

Is there any land like this land?

Streets adjacent to the riverbanks

"Có đất nào như đất ấy không?

Phố phường tiếp giáp với bờ sông"

The rhetorical question at the beginning, "Is there any land like this land?" invokes many thoughts. The land of prosperity, peace, and beauty with long stretches of riverbanks is gone. The tone of the poem becomes bitter before the changing scene of his birthplace, where painful stories unfold. Prosperity no longer belongs to us but has become a place of "degenerate play," a place for the French to revel. What a pain when a prosperous homeland is no longer ours. It is also heartbreaking not only for Tu Xuong’s hometown but for the entire nation – a vast fertile region becomes barren and desolate, a region with the "form of prosperity" but lacking a soul. The occupied nation’s prosperity brings consequences, and our traditional morals are turned upside down.

That house broke the rule, the child despises the father

That shrewish woman scolds her husband

"Nhà kia lỗi phép con khinh bố

Mụ nọ chanh chua vợ chửi chồng"

The invaders seized our land, homes, and fields… streets sprung up while they plundered more and exploited us to get rich. Our age-old traditional morals of respect for parents have faded when "the child despises the father." Parents are caretakers, so what reason caused this sacred feeling to be neglected? It's also “the shrewish wife,” where did the gentle, feminine daughters of the south go, replaced by “the wife scolding the husband.” What caused all orders and good traditional morals to be disrupted, to be shuffled so much? Could it be money that blinds people, who only hanker for luxury and forget the old values, the morals of loyalty and integrity, our ethical standards? We truly fear and abhor the filthy, dirty society of that time. A broken family, "ruined" from spouse to child, how can society be good?

Where are the mean folks like iron feces

Greedy with all the smelling money

"Keo cú người đâu như cứt sắt

Tham lam chuyện thở rặt hơi đồng"

The next two lines depict opposing people, in a fully complete but also very bitter imagery. The number of greedy, miserly people in our country is countless. They are stingy to the point of being "like iron feces" – a waste product from burnt clay that cannot be nibbled anymore. Some greedily hoard for themselves, forgetting human value, who open their mouths only to talk money, taking money as the standard of ethics, evaluating a person. Shameful is the society of that time, painful for those dehumanized. Poet Tu Xuong skillfully uses comparison and reverse techniques to give the lines a high aesthetic value. The tone of the poem becomes fierce, and contemptuous as never before. This is an indictment that the poet writes to denounce those who lose their morals for the sake of money.

North and South ask all provinces

Is there any land like this land?

"Bắc Nam hỏi khắp người bao tỉnh

Có đất nào như đất ấy không?"

Tu Xuong vehemently denounces the bad habits of people at that time, the rotten reality, evil, and good, all mixed… The rhetorical question at the end is like a lament, lamenting the nation's fate. Both the opening and closing are rhetorical questions “Is there any land like this land?” full of sorrow, and resentment towards the decaying society of that time.

In summary, through the art of satire and corresponding rhetorical questions at both the beginning and the end, the poem "Đất Vị Hoàng" has exposed the true face of the semi-feudal society while at the same time expressing a bitter critique against those people who, for money, lost their self-worth and societal moral values. It is the pain of an insider, hurting for the nation’s fate.