Poetry—Korea

The history of poetry in Korea is long and varied, with different genres prevailing in the different political and cultural periods. Throughout much of Korea's history, writers of poetry tended to be of the aristocratic class, government officials for whom the ability to write poetry was an indication of their upbringing and their ability to serve their nation well. Folk beliefs, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Western thought have all, in turn, exerted a strong influence on Korean poetry.

Korean traditional poetry on the whole can be characterized as being centered on the self, through which the reader can relate to his or her own experiences and proceed to discover their universality. Because of its Buddhist and Confucian underpinnings, Korean poetry tended to be transcendent, seeking the ultimate in freedom, liberation, and wisdom. The subject matter tended to be concrete objects or events—a gnarled pine, spring rain, night on the river—and written spontaneously. Traditional poetry also tended to be related to nature and to deal with it conceptually. With roots reaching back to ancient animism, something in nature was not viewed merely as a physical object but rather as a medium through which a universal essence could be captured. This romance with nature remains embodied in the poetry of today.

Poetry in Chinese

The oldest form of poetry written in Korea and that with the greatest longevity is hanshi (poems in Chinese). Hanshi dates back to at least the Three Kingdoms period (first century BCE–seventh century CE) when King Yuri (reigned 19 BCE–18 CE) of the Koguryo kingdom (37 BCE–668 CE) is recorded as having written such poems, and the genre survived into the early twentieth century. As the Korean language at the time had no script of its own, Chinese characters as well as Chinese syntax was employed in writing hanshi, as it was for Korean in general. Unlike its Chinese cousin, which consisted of five or seven characters per foot, Korean hanshi generally consisted of four. As only the upper class was schooled in Chinese characters and the art of writing them with ink brushes, hanshi and all other types of early Korean poetry did not reach beyond the aristocracy. The rich content of hanshi was recited by chanting, and common subjects were scenic views, love, and loyalty as well as self-reflection and self-ridicule.

Shilla Poetry

The first uniquely Korean poetic form to appear was the hyangga songs of the Shilla period (57 BCE–935 CE). Two dozen remaining works from the mid-sixth to late ninth centuries are four-line, eight-line, and ten-line poems. The four-line poems tend to resemble folk ballads, whereas the ten-line poems have a more highly developed structure of three parts of four, four, and two lines. The extant eight-and ten-line hyangga were composed for memorial and other ceremonial use. They were written by Buddhist priests and by warriors of the elite hwarang youth troops and were sung instead of merely recited. Contributing to the distinctness of hyangga is that while they were written in Chinese characters, at times the characters were employed only for their meaning, being pronounced instead with the synonymous native Korean word. At other times, characters are used merely for their pronunciation, their original meaning discarded to substitute for Korean syntactic particles and connectives. Unlike hanshi, which was written in Chinese syntax, hyangga was sung purely in the Korean language of the period.

Koryo Songs

Koryo kayo (Koryo songs) gradually replaced hyangga as the Koryo dynasty (918–1392) took over rule from Shilla. Also referred to as changga (long songs), they differed from hyangga in that they were longer, with a freer, less disciplined form, and were daringly direct in nature. Koryo kayo were transmitted orally throughout the entirety of the Koryo period, not written down until well into the fifteenth century. A new poetic form was introduced into the later Koryo kayo of the thirteenth through sixteenth centuries that became known as pyolgok (special tunes). The extended form of pyolgok consisted of numerous stanzas, and they were referred to as kyonggi songs. They were based on the Chinese characters and Chinese classics of the aristocracy and reflected Confucian thought. The short-form pyolgok, on the other hand, structure the entire piece into a single stanza. Disparagingly referred to as sogyo (commoner's ditty) by the aristocratic class for not conforming to their Confucian norms, they nevertheless contained a subtlety and delicacy to their lyrics.

Choson Verse

The creation of a phonetic alphabet for Korean in 1446 signaled a boon for the writing of poetry in the Choson dynasty (1392–1910). Although shijo (tunes of the times) had their beginnings in the late Koryo period, it was in the fifteenth century that the genre began to flourish and did so for five hundred years. These short, witty epigrams expressing a single thought or observation became the first truly Korean vernacular verse and had a greater influence on modern poetic form than any other Korean verse form. The basic form of shijo, pyong-shijo, consists of three lines of fourteen to sixteen syllables with each line divided into four feet of three to four syllables each. The two variations of the basic form are os-shiji, which has a slightly extended first or second line, and sasol-shijo, in which the first two lines are highly extended and the third line less so.

Characteristic of classical shijo is a sensibility expressed through the simplicity of unadorned emotion. They deal with a wide range of subjects including love, sorrow, the virtue of a life of hardship, the delights of nature, and human existence. The first of the great shijo poets, the controversial bureaucrat Chong Chol (1536–1593), expresses great sensitivity and a desire for self-perfection in Rain on a Lotus Leaf:

A sudden shower
spatters a lotus leaf,
But I cannot find
the track of water.
I wish my heart was like that leaf,
that nothing ever stained it.

(O'Rourke 1982: 21)

Characteristic of modern shijo is that each work is titled, they are relatively free in form and quite commonly break the rules of versification, they are intended to be read as opposed to listened to, and they favor the use of sensitive expression and metaphor.

With the appearance of the Korean alphabet, a new vernacular verse genre, kasa, emerged. Like the Koryo kayo before it, a kasa was meant to be sung. It has the form of four feet per line with three or four syllables to each line and no limit on the number of lines. Kasa can be characterized as a hybrid of musical verse and prose, as an essay set to rhythm. During the early part of the Choson period, kasa, like concurrently popular shijo, was written by aristocrats, but in the later Choson period, commoners began to compose kasa and it was enjoyed by both classes. Recurring kasa themes include contemplation of nature for spiritual enlightenment, gentlemanly virtues, and the metaphor of male-female love to express the sovereign-subject loyalty relationship. The kasa of the late Choson period tended to be longer in length and more prosaic in nature.

Modern Poetry

The opening of Korea at the end of the Choson period saw an influx of Western ideas that had enormous ramifications for all aspects of society and culture, including the formation of a new and modern poetry. Both the adoption of free verse and the reconstruction of the traditional folk ballad, especially by Kim Sowol (1902–1934), set the foundations for modern Korean poetry in the 1930s. The poetry of the late 1920s and early 1930s, led by Chong Chi-yong (b. 1903), was steeped in imagery, representing Korea's first experimentation with modernism. The poetry of the late 1930s and early 1940s, the harshest years of the Japanese colonial period (1910–1945), captured the emotions of the people in their plight. Yun Tong-ju (1917–1945) succinctly captures this in The Sorrowful Race:

White towels are wrapped around black heads,
White rubber shoes are hung on rough feet.

White blouses and skirts cloak sorrowful frames,
And white belts tightly tie gaunt waists.

(Shaffer 1999: 26)

After liberation in 1945 and the ravages of the Korean War (1950–1953), much of the most acclaimed poetry has dealt with the excesses of political power and the plight of the oppressed. Most noted for their works in this area are Shin Kyoung-rim (b. 1936), Ko Un (b. 1933), and Kim Chi-ha (b. 1941). Probably most highly regarded of Korean's modern poets is the prolific So Chong-ju (1915–2000), who took Korean myth, legend, and historical anecdote and crafted them into masterpieces. While the popularity of poetry seems on the wane in much of the world, it enjoys great popularity among the people of Korea.

See Also

Literature—Korea; So Chongju

Further Reading

Anthony of Taize, Brother, and Young-Moo Kim. (1993) The Sound of My Waves: Selected Poems by Ko Un. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University.

Kim, Joyce Jaihiun. (1974) The Immortal Voice: An Anthology of Modern Korean Poetry. Seoul: Inmun Publishing.

Ko, Won. (1970) Contemporary Korean Poetry. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press.

Koh, Chang-soo. (1984) Best Loved Poems of Korea. Elizabeth, NJ: Hollym International Corp.

Lee, Sung-il. (1998) The Moonlit Pond: Korean Classical Poems in Chinese. Port Townsend, WA: Copper Canyon Press.

McCann, David. (1986) Unforgettable Things: Poems by So Chongju. Seoul: Si-sayong-o-sa.

——. (1980) The Middle Hour: Selected Poems of Kim Chi Ha. Stanfordville, NY: Human Rights Publishing Group.

O'Rourke, Kevin. (1982) The Cutting Edge: A Selection of Korean Poetry, Ancient and Modern. Seoul: Yonsei University Press.

——. (1995) Poems of a Wanderer: Selected Poems of Midang So Chong-ju. Dublin, Ireland: Dedalus Press.

——. (2000) "Kevin O'Rourke's Korean Poetry Page." Accessed 6 January 2002, from http://korea.insights.co. kr/english/poem.

Rutt, Richard. (1998) The Bamboo Grove: An Introduction to Sijo. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Shaffer, David E. (1999) The Heavens, the Winds, the Stars and Poetry: The Works of Yun Tong-ju. Seoul: Hakmun Publishing.