Article: Top 10 Korean Poets With Their Titles

Traditional Korean poetry is often performed in public. Much Korean poetry was written in Hanja and later Hangul until the twentieth century. There were attempts to incorporate imagist and modern poetry methods in the early twentieth century, particularly in translations of early American moderns such as Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot. Patriotic works were very successful during the early Republic period (emerging in 1953 after the Korean War). From the 1970s onward, lyrical poetry dominated. Poetry is very famous in 21st-century Korea, evidenced by the number of works published and lay writing. The work contains linguistic data on 10,300 original Korean poems. Let us look at the top 10 Korean poets of all time.

10. Kim So-Wol (Sowol)

Kim Sowol was born on September 7, 1902, in Kwaksan, North Pyongan Province, and died on December 24, 1934. His real name was Kim Jeong-Sik. His grandfather taught him classical Chinese and enrolled him at the prestigious Osan Middle School when he was fifteen years old. There, he became a student of Kim Eok, who was to be his mentor for the rest of his life. Kim Sowol's most active period as a poet was in 1922. In the January 1922 issue of the literary magazine Gaebyeok, he published his poems "Golden Grass" and "O Mother, O Sister." His most famous and well-known poem, "Azaleas," was published in July 1922.

 

9. Han Yongun (Manhae)

Han took part in the famous Tonghak Revolt of 1894, a social reform movement led by apocalyptic Tonghak sect leaders. With its failure, Han fled to Mount Solok, where he began to study Buddhism and was appointed as a priest in 1905. He became a leader in the fight to revitalize and nationalize Korean Buddhism, publishing the influential Pulgyo-Yusin-Ron in 1909. When Japan annexed Korea in 1910, Han joined the independence movement, convening a meeting of Buddhists in Korea to demand their independence from the Japanese. He had a significant role in drafting the Korean Declaration of Independence in 1919, and he was arrested for the same.

 

8. Seo Jeong-Ju (Midang)

Seo Jeong-Ju (1915 – 2000) was born in Jeollabuk-Gochang. He is regarded as the father of modern Korean poetry. He published at least 15 poetry collections under the pen name Midang. Among other places, he taught Korean literature at Chosun University. He was also nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature five times. His grandmother's stories and his interest in Buddhism had a significant influence on his writing. His works have also been translated into many other languages, including English, French, Spanish, and German.

 

7. Jeong Ji-Yong (Pioneer)

On June 20, 1902, Jeong Ji-Yong was born in Hagyeri, Okcheon Eup, Okcheon-gun County, Chungcheongbuk-do Province. In 1913, he enrolled in Okcheon Elementary School and married Song Jae-suk. He relocated to Seoul, attended Whimoon High School, and published "Yoram" in the literary journal Bulletin. On March 1, 1919, the day of the March 1 Independence Movement, he was suspended for an indefinite period from school while there were raucous protests on campus. He published "Three People." He started his poetic career after graduating from Whimoon High School in 1922 and was appointed in the department of English literature.

 

6. Baek Seok (Baek Suk)

He was born in Chengdu, North Pyongan, and began his journalism career in 1934 with Chosun Ilbo. On August 31, 1935, he published his first poem, "Chngju Fortress" (Jeongjuseong), in the Chosun Ilbo. On January 20 of the following year, he published Deer, a set of his poems. Even though Deer contained 33 poems, many of which were new, seven of them had previously been published in magazines or newspapers in slightly different forms. He published about 60 more pieces until 1948, but it is unknown if he published another poetry book.

 

5. Kim Su-Yeong (Soo-Hyeon)

Kim Su-Young (1921–1968) is known as one of modern Korea's most outstanding poets. He primarily wrote participatory poetry that emphasized reality criticism and the spirit of resistance. He died in an accident when he was 47 years old, and the Kim Su-Young Literary Award was brought in his honor. Mischief of Moon Country is his only collection of poems that were issued during his lifetime, even though he left behind over 300 poems. His poems have been translated into other languages like French, Spanish, and German.

 

4. Kim Chun-Su (Chun-Su Kim)

On November 25, 1922, Kim was born in Chungmu (modern-day Tongyeong). From 1940 to 1943, he studied literature at Nihon University in Japan, where he was expelled and imprisoned for speaking out against the Japanese Empire. He returned to Korea seven months after his release to teach in middle and high schools. In 1946, he began publishing poetry. In 1965, he joined the faculty of Kyungpook National University, and in 1978, he was appointed Dean of the Department of Literature at Yeungnam University. Kim passed away on November 29, 2004. He made his debut in the eighth volume of Bamboo Shoots with the issuing of his poem "The Hothouse."

 

3. Yi Sang (Lee Sang)

Yi Sang, better known by his pen name, was born Kim Hae-Gyeong on September 14, 1910, in Seoul, Korea. He attended Donggwang School after graduating from Sinmyeong School. He was admitted to Posung School [ko] in 1922. In 1929, he graduated from Gyeongseong Engineering High School [ko] with architectural training and worked for a while as a draughtsman in the Government-General of Korea's public works department. In December 1929, he won first and third place in a design contest for the covers of Korea and Architecture (Joseongwa Geonchuk) and the Korean Architecture Society's journal (Joseon Geonchukhoe). The majority of his poems were made in the 1930s.

 

2. Yun Dong-Ju (Dong-Joo)

Yun Dong-Ju (1917–1945) graduated from Yeonhui College in Seoul and moved to Tokyo for further studies, where he was jailed on charges of anti-Japanese independence activism. In 1945, he died as a result of torture at Fukuoka Prison. Sky, Wind, and Stars, a collection of his poetry, was published posthumously in 1948. Among his most famous poems are "Foreword" and "Self-Portrait." Sky, Wind, and Stars are available in the United States, France, Spain, Russia, China, and Japan.

 

1. Pak Mok-Wol (Bak Mog-Weol)

Pak Mok-Wol (1916–1978) was a Korean poet born on January 6, 1916, as Park Young Jong in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, South Korea. He taught at Hongik University and Hanyang University (where his statue was erected in1961.) In 1965, Park was nominated to the Korean Academy of Arts (Yesurwon), and in 1968, he was elected chairman of the Korean Poets Association.