The history of the Korean ballads in the enlightenment age can be classified ito the periods of psalms, patriotic anthems, celebration songs, epigrammatic songs ans new poems. The classification was made by considering the changes of social conditions...
The history of the Korean ballads in the enlightenment age can be classified ito the periods of psalms, patriotic anthems, celebration songs, epigrammatic songs ans new poems. The classification was made by considering the changes of social conditions and the development of literary works themselves,
It was in the period of psalms, from 1875 when ports were opened to 1896 when the ' Dok-rip Shin-bun' meaning the ' Independence Paper' was first published, that psalms in English were translated in Korean for singing in 'four and four' syllable metres which was of the traditional rhythm of Korea, In this period, of course, were some of songs originally made by Koreans, which had in themselves a strong tendency of nationalism and later led to the period of patriotic anthems.
It was after the publication of the ' Dok-rip Shin-bun' that the periods of patriotic anthems and celebration songs were on the thriving way. Everyday, in this paper, were printed songs and poems which expressed ardent desires for the national independence or delebrated national ceremonies. Most of them were written in the traditional metre for singing, from the intense zeal of national emotion.
Epigrammatic songs began to appear after 1905 when the Japanese intention for the invasion of the Korean Penninshula was made apparrent to the world. In them, the intensified national feelings were expressed in very suggestive and critical way, It was also in this period that the traditional ballad form for singing began to disappear, and poems in a long, informal form found their way in the world.
The year when a new form of poems made its appearance was 1908. From the year on, poems of new materials were written in a new form. The most characteristic feature of the changes was that they came to get a prose style.
The historic significance of the ballads is in two ways :they have, when considered from their structural composition, modern revolution for self -discipline, and when considered from spiritual points, they attempted not only to hand on the nation's traditional thoughts but also to establish the modern thoughts of enlightenment.