In the last two decades of his life, Xuân Diệu became an advocate for young writers. He wrote the book Conversation with Young Poets in 1961 to give some advice both as an experienced writer and as an enthusiast who wished to see Vietnamese poetry flourish in the future. When a ten-year-old boy named Trần Đăng Khoa from Hải Dương Province gained attention with his flair for poetry, Xuân Diệu himself went to meet the boy and offered to proofread his first poetry collection. In his later reminiscences, Khoa remarked on how Xuân Diệu mentored him as he grew up and changed his writing style. By the time Khoa became an adult, he visited the senile poet at his apartment in Hanoi and noticed that Xuân Diệu had become occupied with thoughts of death and old age, yet devoted himself to writing poetry anyway.
