5 at the beginning of the book

Part 1: Restoration of National Sovereignty and the Search for Modern Poetry

Fireworks│Minor Sorrow or Forced Romantic Passion 16
A Beautiful Yet Sad Story, "Sanyuhwa" 24
Long Afternoon│Like a Sand Castle That Repeats Itself, Tear Down and Rebuild 31
I Saw You│Speaking of Hope in Sadness 37
I Don't Know│The Light of Hope That Guards the Night 46
Does Spring Come to the Stolen Fields?│Finding Your Way in Fantasy 53
My Brother and the Brazier│A Poem of Resistance Using Fictional Characters and Events 61
Glass Window 1│The Reality and Depth of Lonely and Ecstatic Sorrow 69
Do You Know That Faraway Land? │ The More Distant You Are, the More Desperate the Dream of Utopia 75
Five Senses Poem No. 1│Between the 19th and 20th Centuries, and the Future 84
Fox Nangol Tribe│Back then, we were 97
An Endless River Flows│Lyricism Flowing Somewhere in My Heart 104
Until the Peony Blooms│A Day Feels Like a Year, and a Year Feels Like a Day 111
Mountain Swallow│Seeing Freedom and Hope in the Amidst of Despair 116
Surname Book│Why? How? For What Reason? 123
Flag│Flag Variation 128
The sound of insects filled the air│The sound of insects mourning the sad death of their father 133
Deer│A few poems to read together to get closer to the speaker of "Deer" 140
Foreign Village│The Poetry's Directing Effects Planned as Pictures 147
Self-Portrait│A Twenty-Three-Year-Old's Unhesitating Self-Confession 155
Orchid 4│Aesthetic Appreciation Itself 161
Seungmu│The Combination of Scholarly Spirit and Cultural Appreciation 169
The Sea and the Butterfly│The White Butterfly's Aspirations and Frustration as It Rushed into the Blue Sea 176
Gasinae from Jeolla Province│Gasinae from Jeolla Province and a man from Hamgyeong Province met in the distant foreign land of Bukgando 181
Chuilseongjeong│1940, A Modernist's Lyrics 188
Climax│Rainbow Sign 198
The Cross│The Cross that Loved All That Is Dying 205
Baekrokdam│The Level Reached by Spiritualism 212
A Poem Written Easily│A Declaration from One Who Stands on the Poet's Path Until the End 220
Wilderness│The Poetic Struggle of a Poet in Action 227
April │ Humans in Nature, Nature in Humans 234
The Sun│What Kind of World Do I Hope for? 239
Flower Bushes│Flower Bushes Have Thorns 245
Nam Shin-ui-ju Yoo Dong-bak's "Park Si-bong Bang"│A lonely soul dreaming of a fulfilling love 252


Part 2: The Capitalist Era and the Diversification of Modern Poetry

Flowers│In Search of the Essence of Existence 262
Sycamore │ The warmth of cool indifference 268
Looking at Mudeung│The Majesty of the Summer Mountains and the Dignity of Humanity 274
Poem of the Scorched Earth 1│Recovering the Present, Hope for the Future 280
The Military Demarcation Line│Wishing for "Unification Where a Single Flower Blooms Properly" 287
New 1│Aspiration for Purity 293
Blue Sky│What True Freedom Demands 300
Hae-ji-hyang 1│Everyone eats sin and pretends not to know 307
In Memories│The Embodiment of Han as Represented by Hometown and Mother 315
One day, leaving the palace│The grass found at the end of satire 321
Jongno 5-ga│The Life of the Contemporary People, Captured in a Country Boy's Journey to Seoul 329
The Shell Is Gone│Dreaming of a Break from All Falsehood 337
Port of Call 1│What I See Is My Inner Self 344
Farewell Song│The Fragile Human's Strong (or Cruel) Awakening 350
Seongbuk-dong Pigeons│A Lament for Those Who Have Been Dispossessed of Their Homes 356
Civilian│And Then There Were None 361
Agricultural │ A Good Thing for the Poor and the Dispossessed 366
Mokgye Market│Confessions of a Wanderer I Met at Mokgye Market 371
Rice│Bloodstains on Ripening Rice 377
With a Burning Thirst│Song of the Thirst Calling for Democracy 384
Wolhoon│Someone's, but Everyone's Existential Solitude 393
Washing a Shovel in the Sunset River│The Lyrical Resonance of Dignified Folk Poetry 399
Noble and Common │ Life's Lovely End 405
The Faint Shadow of Old Love│The Tragic Confessions of the April 19th Generation 412
Blind Singer Couple│Blind Singer Couple 420 Singing Songs of Love and Forgiveness
1959│A Dark Landscape of Suffering 427
Like a ball that bounces even when dropped│Sharing the void 434
This Summer's Life Study│To Escape the Path of a "Ripe Melon with Nothing Left to Do but Rot" 440
At Sapyeong Station│People waiting for the last train on a snowy winter night 445
Heavy Snow Advisory│452 Things Overlapping the Snowy Landscape
Lower-Level Textbook│A Self-Portrait of Our Times, 460, Read Along Without Distraction
Even Birds Leave This World│The Weight of the Trivial World 465
Shida's Dream│A Dream of Transformation Flowing Through the Sewing Machine 472
Our Neighborhood's Gu Ja-myeong│Gu Ja-myeong's Stories of Women 481
Seomjin River 1│A River I Miss Even If I've Never Experienced It 487
The Light Permitted Only to Those Who Break the Vessel 493
The Road│Do Your Thing Here 501
Franz Kafka│Raw Images Become Poetry 510
Black Leaves in the Mouth│Pain to Remember 517
The Earth Has a Square Memory│Memory of a Being Unreachable in the Future 524
While Waiting for You│On the Movement of Waiting 530
Become a Flower in the Castle│Become a Flower in the Castle, Showing Solidarity with Your Neighbors 536


Part 3: The Present and Future of Modern Korean Poetry

On a Windy Day, You Must Visit Apgujeong-dong 6│Apgujeong-dong, a Canned Food Factory of Desire Created by the System 544
A Long Way Home Alone│A Wound That Never Heals, But "You Are Beautiful" 554
At Seonunsa Temple│Honest and Unreserved Expression of Life 562
Why Are Tears Salty? │ Something Feels Like It's About to Break 569
A Seven-Word Dictionary│577 Words from a Poetic Dictionary That Sparkle Like Incandescent Lightbulbs
Earth│Call and Hear 586
Misunderstandings│Misunderstandings for New Understandings 593
Flounder│Our Warmth, Which Cannot Become One 601
Trauma Diary│I can't write "Long Live Democracy" 607
Original Text│Self-Reflection on Perspectives on Immigrants 613
If It Were Not for Songs│619 Songs from the Bizarre Land of Fire, Encouraging Dreams of Perfect Life
Wild Apple│The Freedom of Untamed Life 627
Gum│Have you chewed any gum? 636
Old Prayers│Unfulfilled, Old Prayers 643

Search 648
About the Author 657

A total of 90 modern poems from the early modern period to the 2000s.

This book contains 90 representative poems by 74 modern poets.
This book, planned as a study of works 'for literary education', took into account the educational characteristics and significance of the works from their selection to their interpretation, and provided meticulous and in-depth commentary on each poem, remaining faithful to the basics of a study of works.
Internally, the overall meaning and formal characteristics of the poetic text were discussed, and externally, the literary historical status and significance of each work, as well as the context of the poet's life and values, were examined.
Furthermore, the book's strength lies in its active use of works that can be intertextually linked in educational settings.
All of the included poems have been published in their entirety, and as many related works as space permits have been included.

The 90 modern poems are divided into three chronological sections: Part 1 covers the early modern period to the liberation in 1945, Part 2 covers the period after the Korean War to the 1980s, and Part 3 covers the period from the 1990s to the present.
This period-based division allows us to broadly identify the social background and trends of the period in which each work was created and published.

This book was planned and written by authors who have studied literature for a long time.
Not only will it be useful for students studying Korean language education or Korean language and literature at university, candidates preparing to become Korean language teachers, and current teachers teaching poetry, but it will also be helpful for general readers who enjoy modern poetry to appreciate it.