Yi Sang-wha
이상화
Yi Sang-hwa (1901–1943) was a Korean nationalist poet active in the resistance to Japanese rule. Yi Sang-hwa's poetic verse may well be an example of one of the most distinct departures in style in all of Korean literature. As a member of the Baekjo literary circle, made up of a school of romanticists, Yi's early poems involved heavy elements of prose and depicted a world of decadent sensibilities and narcissism. In his early poem Naui chimsillo, for example, the poet contemplates committing suicide in order to attain true love, and in another, a life of reverie, completely cut off from reality, is presented as the most desirable goal possible.
