Children’s poems that accompany the years will be like cool breezes, like sips of clear water, like a source of love that will follow them throughout their lives…
The world of poetry opens up a large space for children with love for family, love for nature, love for homeland… Those are the first sweet and clear poems, lessons and warm memories that children carry with them throughout their lives. It is impossible not to mention the best children’s poems Poets write for children famous in Vietnam: Vo Quang, Pham Ho, Xuan Quynh and Tran Dang Khoa with children’s poems that go along with the years.
1. Children’s poetry by Vo Quang
Throughout his literary career, Vo Quang mainly focused on children’s topics and in each poem, he devoted all his soul and talent. He is famous for his poems that are deeply imprinted in the hearts of children for many generations such as:
“- Knock, knock, knock
– Who called?
– I am Rabbit
– If it’s a Rabbit
Let me see…” (Come in)
“Who gets up early?
Step out of the house
Areca flowering
Awaiting!
Who gets up early?
Go to the fields
Even winter sesame seeds
Awaiting!
Who gets up early?
Run up the hill
The whole world
Waiting!” (Who gets up early)
Vo Quang’s children’s poems are simple but very close to everyday life, instilling in children a love for the world of plants and animals, thereby moving towards loving goodness and beauty in everyday life.
Simple, funny and joyful, for many generations of Vietnamese readers, Vo Quang’s poems have become precious keepsakes kept in childhood memories. In the poetry collection Who Gets Up Early, children will travel with “Narget”, “Bamboo Broom Sister”, “Firefly”, “Baby Elephant”, “Morning Sunshine”… to “Let’s have fun”, “Come in” and eagerly explore the world when “The whole world / Is waiting for” “Who gets up early” to greet the coming dawn…
Vo Quang’s children’s poetry collection Who Gets Up Early helps children love plants, animals and close things around them.
With a love for children, people and a very kind life, Pham Ho has chosen the path to enter the world of children’s souls, bringing them true joy. His poetry has an important place for Vietnamese children. From “The cow looking for a friend”, “Ten round eggs”, “Green cabbage”… then “Fire engine”, “Lotus in bloom”, “Sick mother”… Pham Ho’s collection of poems Little Poems is a nursery rhyme sung from a soul in tune with children and a kind heart for children.
“All my life I just dreamed
Made for you
Little poems
Like the red and blue marbles you play with
Like tangerines and oranges, the children peeled them with their hands and smiled
Like little chicks running around their mother
The children put them in their arms to caress and hold them
Like beautiful windows open on all four sides
Welcome the scent of fragrant rice and the singing of birds in the sky
It’s so simple… it’s my happiness.” (Small poems)
The poetry collection Little Poems conveys Pham Ho’s great love for children.
3. Children’s poetry by Xuan Quynh
Xuan Quynh once said: My poetry is a gift from a young friend in the past to the young children of today. Is it because her childhood was full of deprivation and longing for love, so when she became a mother, Xuan Quynh poured all her passionate love into her children, as a way to compensate for the shortcomings and emptiness of her life.
Xuan Quynh’s children’s poetry is loved, from simple verses like nursery rhymes to verses that are not peaceful, filled with worries and concerns. Writing poetry about the life around her children, or going into major issues of the country, or returning to personal feelings, her poetry is always the poetry of the soul of a woman, mother, wife, lover who is intelligent, sharp, kind, and rich in love.
“I tell you
A sky color from a long time ago
It’s a brown color
The sky in the egg
No wind and sunshine
There aren’t many colors
The same sky dome
The sky in an egg”. (The sky in the egg)
When exploring the fairy world through Xuan Quynh’s beautiful children’s poems such as “Fairy tales about humanity”, we will understand more about “My childhood”, the love “I love you mother”… from there we will see that we are as small as a little chicken but meet a whole Sky in an Egg…
Xuan Quynh’s emotional poems flow naturally from a mother’s passionate love for her child.
4. Children’s poetry by Tran Dang Khoa
Famous as a poetic prodigy, from the time he was seven or eight years old, Tran Dang Khoa had his own world in the “Corner of the yard and the sky”. With subtle observations, rich associations and rare talent, plants, animals, people… in Children’s poetry by Tran Dang Khoa appears close, intimate and simple. Perhaps that’s why readers of many generations cannot forget “Night of Con Son”, “Sick mother”, “Rice in our village”, Listening to the teacher read poetry”…
“The teacher sits in a chair and lectures
Place a pair of wooden crutches next to the table
Where is a foot?
We don’t know…
The teacher’s feet were sent back to Khe Sanh
Or Tay Ninh, Dong Thap
The foot stomped on the enemy’s head…
I listened to every word the teacher said
Vibrating many thoughts…” (Teacher’s feet)
Corner of the Yard and the Sky collects the poems that made Tran Dang Khoa a poetic prodigy.
It can be said that good children’s poems have contributed significantly to nurturing children’s souls, guiding them towards beauty and knowing how to do good deeds. Children’s poems that accompany the years will be like cool breezes, like sips of clear water, like a source of love that will follow them throughout their lives…
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