Hong Chung

AP Lit

Ryan Gallagher

25 December 2010

Poem Biography

The original Vietnamese poem titled “Ong Do” was published in 1936 in Hanoi,

Vietnam by poet Vu Dinh Lien. Lien was born in Hanoi, Vietnam in October of 1913,

and formally received an education at the College of the Proctectorate. Lien was an

educationally driven man as he found himself in positions of teaching others. Lien

obtained jobs as private school teachers, and soon found a pedestal into becoming a

serious writer as he soon became the editor of a popular Vietnamese Journal titled, “Tinh

Hoa” (Quintessence). Lien’s published works soon found themselves in the review

sections of Vietnamese magazines as Phuong Hoa, Loa, and Tinh Hoa. The poem, “Ong

Do” was published in 1936 amidst a revolutionary “Modern Poetry Movement” that had

been catalyzed a few years prior in Vietnam.