Thơ mới

New Poetry Movement was a literary movement in 1930s colonial Vietnam, abandoning the stylized forms of Chinese-influenced poetry in Hán-Nôm for free verse in Latin-alphabet Quốc ngữ.

History

The initial impetus was the result of exposure to French poetry, and failures in attempts to translate Verlaine or Baudelaire into the old Chinese-derived poetry forms. Since the 1950s, most poetry in Vietnam is written in free verse. The New Poetry Movement did not just depart from Sino-Vietnamese poetic forms and script, it also introduced more lyrical, emotional and individualistic expression. This poetic movement was contemporary with, and inter-related with, the French realism-inspired realist novels of the Tự Lực văn đoàn.
Among the poets of the "New Poetry," Nguyễn Khắc Hiếu, better known by pen-name Tản Đà, was one of the transitional poets between the old and "New." In terms of literary criticism, Hoài Thanh was the first to make a systematic comparison of the Tho Moi movement with Western poetry.