In the development of Korean modern literature, a primary consideration is the common experience shared by countries with a history of colonization. Korea was introduced to modern literature during the 36 years of Japanese occupation. Ju Yohan, who played a critical role in the development of modern Korean poetry, made the painful confession in his review “ToThose Aspiring toWrite Songs” (1924) that when the first generation of modern Korean writers aspired to write modern poetry, Korea did not have a traditional format which would support them. Ju Yohan’s only reference was the Japanese free verse of the 1910s, which had been influenced by Western romantic lyric poetry. His free verse poem “Fireworks” (“Bulnori”, Changjo, 1919) and other works were produced through sheer hard work.
However, attempts to break free from Western romantic poetry began with the discovery of Korean folk songs and the first generation of modern poets created numerous folk songs in their aesthetic struggle to overcome life’s problems in a cultural way.
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