Essay Prompt: Analyze the content and artistry in the poem 'Crossing Ngang Pass'.

Analyzing the distinctiveness of content and artistry in the poem 'Crossing Ngang Pass'.

I. Outline for Analyzing the Distinctiveness of Content and Artistry in the poem 'Crossing Ngang Pass' (Standard)

1. Introduction

- Overview of Ba Huyen Thanh Quan (key aspects of personality, life, literary career, etc.).
- Overview of the poem 'Crossing Ngang Pass'.
- Stating the argument: The distinctive features of content and artistry in the poem 'Crossing Ngang Pass'.

2. Main Body
a. Content
- Depiction of the landscape at Ngang Pass:
+ Time: The shadow of dusk - evokes a sense of melancholy and emptiness in each person.
+ Space: Ngang Pass is vast and expansive - the vastness of space amplifies the feelings of sadness and emptiness.
+ Landscape: 'Crowded' - the disorderly scene portrays the vitality of all living things amidst the harsh climate and vastness of space.
+ Human life:

• Expressions like 'crumpled', 'scattered'
• Use of inversion
• Employing words like 'some', 'a few' further emphasizes the diminutiveness of human figures and the desolation of the landscape...(Continued)

>> See detailed Outline Analyze the distinctiveness of content and artistry in the poem 'Crossing Ngang Pass' here.

II. Sample Essay Analyzing the distinctiveness of content and artistry in the poem 'Crossing Ngang Pass' (Standard)

Ba Huyen Thanh Quan is one of the outstanding female literary talents of medieval Vietnamese literature; however, her works have not survived to this day in abundance. It can be said that the poem 'Crossing Ngang Pass' is one of her most remarkable creations. Born when Ba Huyen Thanh Quan first left home, leaving her hometown for the capital city of Hue to assume the position of 'royal tutor,' the poem embodies distinctiveness both in content and artistry.

First and foremost, the poem portrays a scene, a picture of Ngang Pass that is both spacious and desolate, yet still hints at the presence, the vitality of human life. The opening of the poem reveals the landscape of Ngang Pass, faintly evoking a sense of melancholy.

Stepping into Ngang Pass as dusk approaches
Grasses and stones mingling with leaves and flowers

The opening two lines of the poem set the artistic time and space for the poem, gradually revealing the scene of Ngang Pass. Time in the poem is evoked through the phrase 'dusk's shadow.' It is a twilight hour - a time that often brings forth in each person a melancholic sense of emptiness and loneliness. Not only the twilight time, but the poem also conjures a vast landscape at Ngang Pass - the vastness of space that further amplifies the feelings of sadness and emptiness. Within this vast space, each scene emerges, densely packed together. The crowdedness of the landscape is vividly depicted through the verb 'mingling.' This verb not only suggests the crowdedness, wilderness, and lack of order of the landscape, but also the vitality of all living things amidst the harsh climate and vastness of space. Additionally, the natural scenery at Ngang Pass also faintly reveals the presence of human life.

Scattered under the bamboo grove a few birds
Staggering by the market river a couple houses

The phrases 'scattered' and 'staggering' are used to describe the figures of birds and houses, employing the technique of inversion, they are placed at the beginning of the sentence to emphasize the sparseness, scarcity. Moreover, the use of words like 'a few', 'a couple' further enhances the diminutiveness of human figures and the sparseness, desolation of the landscape. From these images and words, the author has depicted a sparse, desolate landscape, although it has glimpses of human life. Thus, Ba Huyen Thanh Quan's poem 'Crossing Ngang Pass' has painted a picture of the Ngang Pass landscape at twilight, vast, vast, faintly revealing the human figure, life, yet still desolate, eerie, evoking a sense of melancholy and loneliness.

Not stopping there, the poem 'Crossing Ngang Pass' also expresses the poet's mood and sentiments.

Yearning for the homeland, deeply hurt is the nation
Caring for the family, weary is the elder

The two lines demonstrate the artful use of language and skillfulness of the female poet Ba Huyen Thanh Quan - 'chữ quốc' meaning 'the country' is a homonym with 'cuốc' - a type of bird, and 'gia gia' is a word phonetically similar to the bird 'đa đa'. With the talented wordplay, the two lines express the poet's mood at the time of approaching Ngang Pass. The echoing sound of those two birds might also be the poet's current sentiment - a longing for homeland, a yearning for home. Furthermore, this sentiment is further emphasized and highlighted when the author cleverly uses the technique of inversion, placing the two words 'nhớ nước' and 'thương nhà' at the beginning of the two lines.

Moreover, the poem also directly expresses the poetess's loneliness through the two concluding lines of the poem.

Stopping, standing, sky, mountains, water
A piece of love alone, me with myself

Amidst the vast space of land and sky, it seems to accentuate the author's diminutiveness, loneliness even more. Additionally, the objects that seem to always accompany, go together and merge into each other are now separated, distant from each other - this is clearly shown through the use of commas, separating the objects 'sky', 'mountains', 'water'. It's as if the view of separation, the author's mood has deeply impacted the view of separation in the landscape. And then, the poem's concluding lines, like a sigh, directly express the poet's sentiment. The vast space here has only 'a piece of love alone' - just a piece of love alone 'me with myself'. If 'me' is often used to refer to the collective for the community, the group, now it is only the individual, the personal of the author. Thus, the last two lines show us the poet's loneliness, lost amidst the vast, expansive, wide nature. Thus, the poem has shown us the author's sentiment when stepping into Ngang Pass - a longing for homeland, home and a feeling of loneliness, lost.