The epic poem Huu Thinh viewed from the perspective of genre

In particular, by Huu Thinh, although divided into chapters, sections and titled, they are just slices, pieces of reality and metaphorical symbols, with an overlap between the past - present - future. All emotions, thoughts, and philosophies are revealed through the developments and moods of the ego, the narrator in a flexible integration, sometimes a direct participant, sometimes a witness.

Especially in the Long Poem of the Sea , Huu Thinh intentionally experimented with the structure of "overlapping" - the author's term - Overlapping, intersecting and interweaving emotions, artistic images, humanistic thoughts; overlapping images and connecting the echoes of village cultural consciousness in each chapter, verse, poetic idea... the spatial and temporal dimensions approaching the island and the fate, the portrait of the soldier, creating a field of association in the style of cubist painting, a highly general poetic language. Arriving at the island, seeing the island, seeking dialogue with the island, the soldier is surrounded by the vastness of water, between burning sand and layers upon layers of coral reefs. Water, sand waves... are the objects, the lyrical characters for the soldier to seek to depict his new stature. The island, sand, soil, coral... are breathed with a soul in harmony into the sketches of the shape of the sea and islands. And Huu Thinh wrapped his emotions in them, then brought them to light with the soldier's heart. The chapter "Autobiography of a Soldier" is a very unique chapter of midland village culture. It is the chapter where the soldier tells about his origin in a lyrical monologue.

In the Long Poem of the Sea , the author has incarnated and split himself to have dialogues from which contemplations and philosophies about life and people are naturally revealed. Monologues, dialogues with the sea, with himself and with the soldiers - soldiers guarding the offshore islands. The figure of the soldier's fate is blurred into the shape of the sea and islands, the Fatherland. The memories of Truong Son are blurred into the modern, heroic and majestic space of the fierce sea. The multi-faceted and sentimental cultural strata of the midland of the Fatherland are blurred into the soil, sand, coral... creating

Therefore, the multidimensional emotional spaces of poetic language are full of impressions, the meaning beyond the words stirs the reader's heart.

Through the survey of Huu Thinh's three epic poems, we see that the structure of each epic poem is not unique but extremely diverse and rich. It has a harmonious combination of two elements: narrative and lyrical, they exist intertwined and determine each other to successfully and deeply express the ideological content of the work. This is also one of the unique characteristics that makes the success and appearance of the epic genre that other genres do not have.

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3.1.2. Harmony between poetic forms

Modern epic poems are a literary genre in the system of modern Vietnamese poetry. These long poems are often quite voluminous, with intense inspiration, grandiose content, heroic tones, often reflecting important and great historical events. Therefore, for a modern epic poem with a large capacity , a large number of verses, the author rarely uses a single poetic form . Thanh Thao also said: "I think, if it were just an individual poet, he would never write an epic or a long poem, but only write lyric poetry, only sing love songs." Thus, due to the need of the times for epic poems reflecting the heroic history and vitality of the nation, poets have created, contributing to enriching the treasure of modern Vietnamese literature.

We have gone and surveyed the harmony of poetic forms in Huu Thinh's epic poems and found that each of his epic poems has a harmonious combination in the use of a variety of poetic forms: prose poetry, free verse, five-word poetry, and verse.

eight words and six-eight poetry

Through research, we found that prose poetry is a genre that Huu Thinh only uses in epic poems. “ Prose poetry is a type of lyric poetry with a sentence structure similar to prose, one sentence follows another without a line break, almost

as unrhymed, rhythm does not have a fixed nature, the flow of sentences is not bound by any rules, is the expansion of free verse forms, very full of feelings and emotions " [47, p. 150]. Huu Thinh often turns to prose poetry to express great issues or express pent-up emotions that are so full that they cannot be stopped. Rich realistic content or the characters' busy, contained, and pushing moods force the verses to burst out to their fullest extent and become prose poems. As Le Luu Oanh affirmed: " There are poets who come to prose poetry as a flow of strong emotions, an emotion that any regular, balanced interruption of the rules will destroy its rushing, strong flow " [47, p. 150].

In the epic poem Road to the City, the author used a prose poem called Prose of a Soldier. This is the passage where the author lets the lyrical character directly refer to himself as “we” to talk about himself. The lines of confidences seem to have been contained in the soldier’s heart for a long time, and now they have the opportunity to express themselves, so they naturally flow through each line of poetry. From the turmoil in the soldier’s life: “ We are full of forests, bathing, washing, picking vegetables, digging tunnels, dreaming, living a normal life throughout the war, loving the soldier’s life, always loving hardship” , or the concerns of the soldier holding a pen during the war: “No matter how eager your steps are, you can’t reach the regiments. The marching regiment, the farming regiment, the encircling regiment, the regiment infiltrating and attacking, tearing the enemy apart in a comb-like position throughout the Central Highlands...”, to their concept of holding a pen : “But don’t write about us like cups and bowls standing on the table; Please write like a rushing river...” And here is a typical prose poem with a political philosophy: “…don’t write about us like cups standing on the table; please write like a rushing river. And we and that crumpled kettle are one, even the stones that support the pot have many related warm and cold things.” It seems that the content itself has found its way to the form of expression. And only prose poetry can have

can contain all the thoughts and worries of the lyrical character, the soldier, in this passage.

In the Long Poem of the Sea , Huu Thinh used prose poetry to describe the meeting and conversation between the character Bien and the soldier. It was a " strange" meeting between the soldiers and the sea: "The meeting of a million years with the child of the battlefield. Not only the soldier was strange, but the sea was strange at first. The sea exclaimed, "Why is the winner so haggard?" The soldiers held a few yellow branches of the mangrove tree, holding a new protection. The soldier said, "I passed through many shades to get here." The shade has receded. The purple ink has returned to the student age. The sound of the gong has returned to the drought." In fact, this is a silent dialogue between the Vietnamese people after the victory and the beloved sea of the Fatherland. Silence has become words. The image of the soldier is a symbolic image of the nation, and the image of the sea is the sacred flesh and blood of the country. It was this dialogue that helped the nation calm down after the intoxication of victory to realize the mounting difficulties of the post-war period.

Besides prose poetry, free verse is also used effectively by Huu Thinh in long poems. This poetic form has flexible elasticity, the verse can be expanded, lasting dozens of words, many printed lines, can be arranged into " ladders ", to emphasize the rhythm of the verse, can alternate long and short sentences. Thanks to these characteristics, free verse has an advantage in modern poetry writing, especially in resistance poetry. In long poems, readers encounter a colorful, messy, vibrant, and rushing world of war life... it seems to be very suitable for free verse; it is suitable for the content requirements, can accommodate many associations, thoughts suitable for the movement of artistic thinking, old rhymes, old rules cannot contain such a vast world. Huu Thinh has promoted the advantage of this poetic form and its appearance is relatively frequent in his poetry in general and long poems.

in particular.

In his first epic poem, The Endurance of the Earth , Huu Thinh made the most of the advantages of free verse to express his painful, repressed emotions:

Parents go to find food

Hanging a child on a tree, ants swarmed all over his face. Found food.

Back to the Dead Child

Food falls like blood in the forest

It is free verse that helps the verses to always change, avoiding the feeling of heaviness and monotony. In this form of poetry, Huu Thinh shows freedom in expression. It seems that free verse requires the poet to speak in a real voice, close to the content of reality.

Especially in the epic poem Road to the City , free verse occupies 15 stanzas. Sometimes it is the chaos of reality with hardships and difficulties:

Only bring enough rice for ten days, save for guns, and bring medicine.

Still carrying each other

Bring many accidents along the way.

…………………………………….

Thirst for the lips to bite into the banana leaf Appears

The shivering jungle fever sticks appear

Sweat dripping like candles

In the epic poem The Sea, free verse is also used very flexibly by Huu Thinh. The flexibility of free verse is very suitable to express the silent moments filled with emotions and moods:

Dry and burnt rice without you

Ink-striped pants without you

Banyan leaves fall outside the alley

…………………..

The sound of the kite flute makes the sea less vast, the moon stands still

Listen to yourself Quietly…

The external form of free verse is indeed limitless, but it contains surprises and many layers of emotional meaning. That is the image of a soldier being “blinded by a sandstorm”, being “torn off the island by a storm” , reading those verses arouses in us a fear, a terrifying emptiness:

He heard nothing but cold all over his body. The storm blocked all the way back.

The morgue door is vast, Mom!

Mom doesn't know I'm alone in the middle of the ocean. The ocean has everything to erase me at any moment. And I'm empty-handed.

Along with Nguyen Khoa Diem, Che Lan Vien, Pham Tien Duat... Huu Thinh has brought a new breath to free verse. Not philosophical and eloquent like Che Lan Vien, not humorous like Pham Tien Duat, Huu Thinh's free verse tone is the accumulation of emotions through deep, sharp, subtle contemplation but still simple.

In Huu Thinh's epic poems, the author also uses five-word verse alternating with free verse to create highlights.

In his first epic poem The Endurance of the Earth, the five-word verse form was used.

Not much, it is often combined with other poetic forms but it expresses very successfully, sincerely and touchingly the feelings of a soldier far from home for his mother - boundless longing:

The country has enemies, but mother still chews betel leaves

Warm a trusted area behind

In The Road to the City, it often appears alone or in pairs. The five-word verses are used by the author with many different purposes. Sometimes to tell: “After the tigers pounced/ After the elephants chased; The complete silence/ I lay listening to myself breathing; The ladle handle stood still/ And spoke shamelessly again; Carrying a bag of rice far from home/ I became a bombardier; Alone with a tray of food/ Sitting on either side was awkward…”. Sometimes to be lyrical, expressing the thoughts and feelings of the lyrical character: “ War and dreams/ The trail and your letter; What greater wish is there/ Freedom and reunion/ Loving mother and loving you/ What greater happiness is there; Thank you, musician/ Speak for us…”

In the Long Song of the Sea, the five-word verse form is used quite a lot. There are long five-word verses. That is in the first wave words and third wave words . With his forte in the five-word verse form, Huu Thinh used it intensively and maximized the power of this verse form to convey the feelings of the soldiers:

Soldiers go to the island with the river accompanying them. Long years and wide land.

Joy and sadness after war

(Wave Words One - Epic of the Sea ) Where are the ancients?

Like just had a half-eaten meal

The spear and the night god are homesick, sitting sewing

(Wave Words - Epic of the Sea )

Along with the five-word verse, the eight-word verse is also a success of Huu Thinh. The strength of this verse is its grandiose, flexible quality, sometimes calm, sometimes exciting. Eight-word verse appears in epic poems to express the author's feelings and emotions in a very flexible way. Therefore, in Huu Thinh's epic poems, there are many eight-word verses.

In The Endurance of the Earth , eight-syllable verse is combined with five-syllable verse to express the emotions and feelings of a soldier far from home:

I have never been at ease, my land. I have never been able to speak my heart to my mother.

Pale blue sky and water in the dry season are very young. Steaming around people, the earth sweats.

In the epic poem Road to the City , there are also lyrical passages when the soldier remembers her in the cockpit of the tank:

Open the door and see the vast sky. Where are you in my memories? Where are you in this boundless sky and earth?

My throat is dry, why is the sun so merciless?

In the Epic of the Sea , the eight-word verse form is used to express the thoughts and feelings of the island soldiers. For the island soldiers, love for the country is expressed through love for the island:

The sea has islands, the sea does not repeat itself. The island has soldiers, the sand and mountains become the Fatherland.

Along with free verse, prose, eight-word and five-word poetry, six-eight poetry is also a poetic form that Huu Thinh popularized and achieved great success in.

The epic poem Huu Thinh viewed from the perspective of genre - 10

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