Analysis of the Poem 'Floating Rice Cakes' by Ho Xuan Huong

Topic: Analysis of the Poem 'Floating Rice Cakes' by Ho Xuan Huong

5 Sample Essays Analyzing the Poem 'Floating Rice Cakes' by Ho Xuan Huong

1. Analysis of the Poem 'Floating Rice Cakes' by Ho Xuan Huong, Sample 1:

When we come to the poetry of Ba Huyen Thanh Quan, we enjoy the elegant verses, with a courtly character, always evoking a melancholic feeling. On the contrary, studying the poetry of Ho Xuan Huong, we encounter a completely different style. The tone of the poetry is strong, robust, with ordinary, rustic themes, profound and poetic meanings, bitter and acerbic, containing feelings of frustration, and criticizing the contemporary society. 'Floating Rice Cakes' is a familiar poem that clearly demonstrates her poetic style.

This is a remarkable love poem. The author uses the image of a floating rice cake to portray the beauty of the body and soul of a girl with a humble, dependent fate, yet still preserving her integrity.

The entire poem is an anthropomorphic symbol. Thanks to her keen observation and strange associative ability, Ho Xuan Huong discovered similarities between the ordinary floating rice cake and the image as well as the life of women in feudal society. Both have a beautiful appearance (white, round) with noble souls (golden heart), their lives submerged, humble, and swaying (in the boiling pot of rice cakes as well as in life), unable to control their own destiny. It is these very new and unique observations that have constructed the poetic image. The poet anthropomorphized the rice cake from the very first words, linking real details with ambiguous words to create a broad field of associations for readers. Therefore, the poem is realistic in its description but metaphorical in meaning, speaking of the rice cake with all its characteristics, but making it a story of a woman submerged in life. The woman here has a truly beautiful body, fair skin, a full, charming figure, with a truly pure and generous soul:

Her body is both white and round.

With such beauty, she should have a happy life. But no, her life must be tumultuous, difficult, wandering, floating and sinking not just once, in a vast life:

Seven times floating, three times sinking in the water.

The Best Essays Analyzing the Poem 'Floating Rice Cakes' by Ho Xuan Huong

Women do not control their lives, their fate is determined by others, they are oppressed, suppressed:

Despite life's hardships, despite enduring many misfortunes, women still maintain their integrity and beautiful soul:

Even though life may be harsh, even though they endure many hardships, women still maintain their integrity and beautiful soul.

Yet I still maintain my golden heart

Here we see the creative talent of the female poet. In the very first line, she chooses not many details but chooses carefully and describes accurately the characteristics of the rice cake, and the author simply places before those descriptive words the two words 'my body.' The line becomes vivid. 'My body,' the address of the cake is anthropomorphized and it is also the words of the woman introducing herself. Thanks to these two words, the reader's imagination takes flight and the image of the beautiful woman appears in everyone's mind. The pair of words both... and support each other for the four lines, making the poetic tone contain a consciousness and a bit of proud satisfaction about that physical beauty.

However, in the second line, the tone of the poem abruptly changes. From a fleeting bit of satisfaction, pride turns to lament about a wretched fate. The poet turns a familiar proverb (seven times floating, three times sinking) into a new expression, emphasizing the tumultuous nature. This proverb goes hand in hand with the image of being both white and round, creating a surprising contrast that emphasizes the woman's unhappiness. The phrase with water and land accompanying the image of seven times floating, three times sinking is like a reproach: Why is society so unjust as to bury the life of a woman like this?

And from the lamenting tone, the poem shifts to a resigned tone 'Despite life's hardships, despite enduring many misfortunes, women still maintain their integrity and beautiful soul.' The woman does not control her life but depends on others. But in the last line of the poem, the poetic tone, the poetic meaning suddenly changes again: 'Yet I still maintain my golden heart.' Here, the contrast structure is thoroughly exploited by the author. It is the contrast between the woman's attitude in the third and fourth lines, the contrast between the resigned attitude and the resolute attitude to protect the purity in the soul of a person. This contrast spills over into the language Although... yet I still maintain... is just a contrast relationship, but placing it at the beginning of the sentence is further strengthened by the word still, making the contrasting meaning more vivid, stronger. The word yet is an 'adjective' (the best word in the poem) speaking emphatically and decisively about the perseverance to the end to maintain the golden heart. Here, the woman dares to contrast the golden heart with all the storms, the seven times floating, three times sinking of life. That is a woman who is very aware of her life and her qualities. That is a statement of the venerable value of women.

2. Analysis of Hồ Xuân Hương's poem Bánh trôi nước, sample 2:

'My body is both white and round
Seven parts float, three parts sink in the water
Worms eat away, yet my heart remains pure'

With just the simple, rustic rice dumplings, the author Hồ Xuân Hương has crafted a poem that speaks of endurance, bearing the burden of the erroneous belief in the superiority of men over women at that time. The poem uses only simple, familiar words but contains so many emotions.

Above are the analysis of Hồ Xuân Hương's poem Bánh trôi nước to enhance your knowledge for answering, practicing writing, you can also refer to the Composition of Bánh trôi nước and Your Feelings about Hồ Xuân Hương's poem Bánh trôi nước sections for more insights.
 

'My body is both white and round'

The author has used the familiar folk motif 'My body' to allow women to embody the charming, cute rice dumplings. Inside, it is still a praise of the beauty of women, turning them into the most beautiful, splendid, and fragrant flowers of life. Making this life more beautiful, more colorful.

'Seven parts float, three parts sink in the water'

The proverb 'seven parts float, three parts sink' is ingeniously applied to describe the fate of Vietnamese women in ancient feudal society. To express the author Hồ Xuân Hương's emotional sympathy standing before the fate of women swaying, sinking, not knowing where to go. Just let fate decide. I wonder: 'A woman so beautiful, why should she endure such a life, never enjoying a happy life?' Why do those big, strong men not bear the hardships but impose them on those small women?

'Worms eat away, yet my heart remains pure'

Analysis of Hồ Xuân Hương's poem Bánh trôi nước, selected literary samples

The author uses a literary device: inversion. It speaks of women having to live dependently. 'Being a wife, obeying the husband, the husband's child obeying the son'. When at home, they depend on their father, whatever the father says, they do, not daring to disobey. When they get married, they must serve their husband, also not daring to do wrong. When the husband dies, their fate relies on their children. In this life, how absurd beliefs they have! When will they have their own independent life? They must suffer a lot to endure such unreasonable things

'Yet my heart remains pure'

The poet's proud and resolute tone expresses an attitude of perseverance, endurance. 'A heart of gold' symbolizes the loyal and hard-working nature of Vietnamese women towards their husbands and children. Despite being dependent and facing unfair treatment in life, this line shows pride and reveals Hồ Xuân Hương's character: sympathy for women, resentment towards husbands.

The poem portrays Vietnamese women of the past through the image of rice dumplings - a traditional dish in a simple, folk language. The poem's structure and language have been fully Vietnamese. The poem is rich in meaning and vivid in Xuân Hương's style. It expresses empathy and pride for the fate and identity of Vietnamese women, showing remarkable human values. The female poet writes with all her love, proud of the cultural identity of Vietnam.
 

3. Analysis of Hồ Xuân Hương's poem Bánh trôi nước, sample 3:

Hồ Xuân Hương's Bánh trôi nước is a unique poem: praising a traditional, folk food. Without a hand, a soul of a rustic woman like her, perhaps the rice dumplings would not have entered literature.

Firstly, Hồ Xuân Hương's poem is very skillful:

My body is both white and round
Seven parts float, three parts sink in the water
Worms eat away, yet my heart remains pure.

This is the introduction of the rice dumpling: from its shape, structure, to its making process. The rice dumpling is made from glutinous rice flour, kneaded with water until smooth, then shaped into a round shape like an apple, filled with black sugar, put into boiling water to cook, when cooked, the dumplings float up. The person kneading the dough must be skilled to make beautiful dumplings, if clumsy, the dumplings can be lumpy or loose. But no matter what, the dumplings must have filling. Without filling, the dumplings will be very bland. Reading the poem, we see that it is truly rice dumplings, not a single mistake.

The image in the poem is rice dumplings. But the poem is not an advertisement for a traditional dish. Poetry truly has meaning when it conveys the emotions, thoughts of the poet. Therefore, Hồ Xuân Hương's poem is still the sincere words of a woman's heart. We can say the poet borrowed the words of the rice dumpling to express the fate and heart of a woman. The rice dumpling is an inspiration, a metaphor.

My body is both white and round

Guide to Analyzing Hồ Xuân Hương's poem Bánh trôi nước

The white body describes the rice dumpling with white flour, also describing a beautiful, virtuous white body. Round means she is blessed with a round shape, but also means she fulfills all her duties.

Seven parts float, three parts sink in the water

Seven parts float, three parts sink is a proverb indicating the floating, swaying fate in life. Non-water is rivers, seas, mountains, and hills, symbolizing living circumstances, broadly life, human life.

Worms eat away, yet my heart remains pure

This is an image of the misfortune that a woman's life falls into. In the old society, which valued men and looked down on women, the fate of women was determined by men. Therefore, the girl in the folk song feels:

My body is like a piece of peach silk
Fluttering in the market, who will pick it up?
My body is like a floating leaf
Upside down, downside up, following the flow of water

The folk verses express a sense of contentment, acceptance. The only thing they can control is their own heart:

Yet my heart remains pure

The woman still maintains loyalty, steadfastness, and immutability in love. A statement that shows discreet pride in the loyal quality of a woman. However, the whole poem still permeates a sense of sympathy for fate. A white body, a round fate, yet they endure the situation of three sinking and seven floating, unable to control themselves.
 

4. Analysis of Hồ Xuân Hương's poem Bánh trôi nước, sample 4:

In the ancient feudal society, women always had to endure injustices, prejudices, and cruelty from society. Being born as a woman predetermined them to face injustices, unlike men who were looked down upon, scorned, and treated cruelly. They were like Kieu, Little Blue in Nguyen Du's poetry, Vu Thi Thiet in Nguyen Dữ's works... In that feudal society, women had no voice or any status. Hồ Xuân Hương was seen as a phenomenon in Vietnamese literature. For the first time in literary history, a woman elevated the status of women, composed verses fighting for women's fate, satirizing, criticizing, and even challenging the 'idols' of that society: kings, officials, and ruling classes. One of Hồ Xuân Hương's representative poems is 'Bánh trôi nước.'

Hồ Xuân Hương's poetry is sharp in language, bitterly satirical when criticizing the ruling class, those with power who lived cruelly, hypocritically, and despicably. For the first time, someone dared to speak up and criticize so strongly. However, when writing about women, Hồ Xuân Hương always showed deep empathy and the most earnest attitude towards them. The poem 'Bánh trôi nước' depicts the fate of women in the ancient feudal society, a fate that drifted, ephemeral and determined entirely by men, their husbands.

'Your body is both white and round
Seven floating, three sinking in the waters'

Reference for analyzing Hồ Xuân Hương's poem Bánh trôi nước

The poem begins with the poet Hồ Xuân Hương evoking images of floating rice cakes. Rice cakes are made from glutinous rice flour, and when molded by artisans, they are round and white, characteristic of rice. In this poem, Hồ Xuân Hương uses the imagery of rice cakes to talk about the lives and destinies of women in ancient society. Understanding this, we can see that through the round, white image of rice cakes, the beauty of the women's outward appearance is evoked.

That is a fresh, round, vibrant beauty 'Your body is both white and round'. But in contrast to that vibrant beauty is a fate, a future full of obscurity, darkness 'Seven floating, three sinking in the waters'. In terms of literal interpretation, we can understand this as the process of boiling the cakes, completing the final step. But this is also just a symbolic image. Because it evokes the fate, the life full of ups and downs, transformations of women. As mentioned, in ancient society, being born as a woman was already a disadvantage, an injustice.

Because from birth to marriage, they had no say in anything, not even in love, the person they marry, the happiness of their entire lives, because in ancient society there was the notion of 'Parents decide where the child sits', or 'marriage follows the husband', meaning once married, everything must follow the husband. Therefore, their fate, whether rising or falling, entirely depended on their husbands:

'Your body is both white and round
Seven floating, three sinking in the waters'

By this line, the idea of the first two lines is expressed, developed more clearly, more specifically. Just as the round, twisted, firm, broken rice cakes all depend on the hands of the maker, if they are careful, delicate, then when the cake is completed, it will be round and white. Conversely, if the artisan is careless, negligent, then the cake will be twisted, and when boiled in water, it will break. For women in ancient society, it was the same, if lucky to meet someone who knows how to love and cherish, their lives would be happy, joyful; but when married to a domineering, tyrannical husband, they would have a life of misery, unhappiness. However, even if life is immutable, transient, those women still maintain their beauty, loyalty in their hearts. Here, the image of women in ancient society is completed, not only their external beauty but also the beauty of their souls is worth cherishing.

By borrowing the image of rice cakes, the poet Hồ Xuân Hương successfully constructed the image of ancient women, who were women of comprehensive beauty, not only physical beauty but also beauty of the soul. Despite the misfortunes, the suffering, that beauty of the soul not only does not disappear but also shines brightly with virtues, morals. Through the poem, the poet also expresses deep sympathy for the unfortunate fate of women in ancient feudal society.

5. Analysis of the poem 'Bánh trôi nước' by Hồ Xuân Hương, sample number 5:

We are living in a society of equality, democracy - where people enjoy all the rights of freedom, happiness. Where there is no war, no oppression, no injustice or discrimination. That is a life that people always long for. But that is a luxury in the old society. People crave equality, crave the right to control, but that is just a distant dream, never achievable. This is even more evident in Hồ Xuân Hương's poem 'Bánh trôi nước'.

'Her body is both white and round
Seven float, three sink in the water
Despite being twisted, broken by the hands of the maker
She still keeps her heart of gold'

Instead of describing in a long-winded manner, the author expresses all the implications he wants to convey in those 4 lines. Not too long to use many words, nor too short for the reader to understand the content. Just four lines, for the reader to read and contemplate deeply.

'Her body is both white and round'

The author uses the familiar folk motif 'her body' to praise the beauty of women, 'both white and round.' The author uses metaphorical language to describe the image of women 'Her body is like...'. The image of a simple, humble woman yet exudes a distant, glamorous and colorful appearance. Simply by the image of the rice cake, simple, plain, white, it evokes the purity, innocence of women - those who deserve care, protection, and protection. But in the second line, the author gives us ominous predictions:

'Seven float, three sink in the water'

Analyze the poem Bánh trôi nước by Hồ Xuân Hương to see the soulful beauty of those 

In the above line, the author cleverly uses the proverb 'seven float, three sink' to describe the 'unfortunate' fate of women in feudal society. The proverb is also commonly mentioned by our people when cooking bánh trôi, when 7 parts of the cake float up and 3 parts sink, then the cake can be taken out. But in this line, it reminds the reader of the fate of women being trampled, being swayed by society's prejudices, their lives fluctuating, not knowing about tomorrow. That fragile, delicate fate cannot withstand the storms, the oppressions, just swaying without a shore to anchor. Without using clever phrases or impactful verbs, Hồ Xuân Hương's metaphorical images are so impressive. Women in that society, they do not determine their fate, they are not 'allowed' to decide their own happiness but leave it to fate. Reading this line, many readers will exclaim: 'How can we let women with weak feet, soft hands, fragile like that bear the storms of life, is there no one like 'Từ Hải' in the world to help those unfortunate women like Thúy Kiều anymore?'. It's painful.

'Despite being twisted, broken by the hands of the maker'

That weak, humble, uncertain fate is left to life, left to the 'molder' the right to 'control' their own lives. No matter how they struggle, their lives cannot escape. So why is that? Why do they continue to endure like that? Is it because they are afraid? No, because they deeply understand that, no matter what they do, they cannot resist the prejudices of society, which have been nurtured for thousands of years. The system makes people fall into deadlock and not want to resist anymore. When will they ever have an independent life for themselves, so they can live according to their own will, so they can be themselves?

'Yet she still keeps her steadfast heart'

Although the poem expresses the pain, humiliation, and endurance of women, it still maintains a steadfast, resilient attitude 'her steadfast heart' - a symbol of loyalty, unwavering, wholehearted to her husband and children. No matter how oppressed they are, no matter how much suffering they endure, they will still be a wife, a mother, a filial daughter, enduring, wholeheartedly devoted to their husband and children. That is the enduring quality of Vietnamese women that cannot be replaced. The line shows the author's pride and strong emotions: deep empathy for women who are 'prisoners' of feudal society and indignation towards the 'molders' - those who directly cause pain to these women who should be cherished more than endure like this.

The poem, though very short, depicts the image of Vietnamese women through the image of bánh trôi nước - a simple but familiar and humble dish. Expressed in the form of four-line verses, the poem has shown the empathy, compassion of Hồ Xuân Hương towards the image of Vietnamese women. The author hopes that through the poem, they can contribute a voice, deep empathy for women and awaken the 'molders': cherish and love the women beside them.