Ko-wol, pen-name of Janghee Lee, published a small number of poem during the 1929's before endig his own unhappy life.
His first works to be published appeared in the 3rd issue of "Kum Sung" magazine in may 1924. They include ''After the breeze blows...
Ko-wol, pen-name of Janghee Lee, published a small number of poem during the 1929's before endig his own unhappy life.
His first works to be published appeared in the 3rd issue of "Kum Sung" magazine in may 1924. They include ''After the breeze blows" 4 other poems, and a novel in translation. Representative of these works is "The Spring is a Cat" which attains a very high poetic level. His technique in expressing sensual imagery is especially fine, a trait shared by most all of his later poems
Ko-wol's place in the history of Korean poems was obscure in the 1920's, so that his poems did not have much reputation.
Indeed, Ko-wol's poems ended up by becoming an "isolated island" in the history of Korean poems in the 1920's And the brevity and unhappiness of his life prevented him from producing more than a few works.
In this thesis, I will limit my study to 34 poems. I will apply psychological methods in the analysis of his works, and through this analysis establish the excellency of his poetic technigue.
Ko-wol lost his mother when he was 5 years old, and spent his childhood under his stepmother. His life was full of pain and sad- ness He fought with his half-brothers, and was deserted by his father. Unable to receive love or care from his mother, he suffered from a desperate yearning for affection As a result he came to hate other people and the world, finally abusing even himself.
Ko-wol's poems fully express the character of his life First in the poem "Longing" a longing which finally proved impossible to satisfy.
Second, solitude and introspection are common traits of his poems. We can find words like "lonely" and "alone" in many of his poems.
This theme is caused by his fundamental lack of love.
Third, we can see that his poems have a characteristic dual structure. the opposition of actual' and ideal, of subjective and objective.
These can be understand. as a reflection of his inner conflict. This conflict was never to reach equilibrium Ko-wol hated the actual, and obsessed with the ideal and fantastic This shows how much he despised life. The anguish of meatal disturbances finally led him to end his own life.
Ko-WOI'S poems started under the influence or symbolism. But he did not stop there, he was fascinated with Baudelaire and Hagiwara's poem. "The Cat" and learned from the techniques of "New Sensualism" and ''Imagism" from Japan His poems thus went a step ahead of Korean poems of the 1920's.
This reflects precisely his poetic tendency toward sensual imagery. In other words, Ko-wol did not regard poetry as a game of the intellect, but sought to express through relevant visual images.
This tendency made him the first imagist in Korea.
Most all poems making free use of image and various techniques of expression had been the work of the Korean pioneers of modern ism in the 1930's. This development went from Jeong Ji Yong at the end of the 1920's, to Kim Ki Rim and Rim Kwang Kyun in the 1930's But the work of these pioneers had limits the limits of imagism in the 1930's The excessive pursuit of image reduced the depth of their poetry, and sometimes fell into mere technique. The emphasis on images also sometimes eld to a break with the traditional source of Lyricism. In becoming shorter, their poems also fell into insincerity and dogmatism. By concentrating on big city life and foreign-made objects, these poets turned away from the suffering of their age. Of course, Ko-wol's poetry has similar limitations, but not to the extent as the poetry of the 1930's. His poetry suffers less from intellectual Lyricism than that Of the 1930's
I believe Ko-wol's poetry should be given its due as unique in the 1920's and as a pioneer of the imagist poetry of the 1930's.