When reading a literary work, have you ever asked yourself: Why does the author carry such concerns within them? Why did Ba Huyen Thanh Quan still feel lonely and sad even though she was respected by the king and invited to the royal court to take up an official position? What emotions urged poet Meng Haoran to write the poem “Spring Dawn”? Why did Tran Te Xuong compose the poem “The River Filled In” when he heard the sound of frogs croaking?
At the Grade 4 Lyric Poetry Seminar, the “little poets” did not stop at reading, but also proactively placed themselves in the author’s state of mind, within the correct historical context, to perceive living circumstances, emotions, and the inner resonances hidden deep within each line.
Those are feelings of sorrow and longing when having to be far from one’s homeland, and regret for the glorious past of the old dynasty that Ba Huyen Thanh Quan conveyed in “Across Ngang Pass”. Despite being respected, despite having many “attendants” by her side, she still felt lonely, still felt “a private fragment of affection, just me with myself”. Or those are the loneliness, quietness, and stillness of poet Nguyen Khuyen before a vast yet empty space in the poem “Autumn Fishing”, delicately expressed through the image “leaning on a pillow, letting down the fishing rod”, an outwardly leisurely posture but containing many deep inner concerns.
Those thoughts and emotions are not only expressed through words but also through many creative forms: from emotionally rich illustrative paintings, brightly colored clay models, to carefully prepared, coherent presentation slides. Each product is the crystallization of a process of exploration, discussion, analysis, and especially deep empathy with the author by Grade 4 students of Dewey Hai Phong.
The lyric poetry seminar comes to a close, but has “sown seeds” for the “generation continuing the essence” the ability to perceive beauty and the subtlety of emotions, while nurturing sensitivity and emotional responsiveness to the times. It is precisely those initial resonances that will become a solid emotional foundation, helping students know how to empathize, know how to share in life, becoming firm baggage for them to become kind people in the future.
