Kim So-wol
김소월
Poet · 1902–1934
Who is Kim So-wol?
Kim So-wol, born Kim Jeong-sik in Kwaksan, North Pyongan Province in what is now North Korea, is regarded as one of the most important poets in modern Korean literature. Writing in the 1920s during the Japanese colonial period, he drew on traditional Korean folk rhythms, rural imagery, and the emotional register of han, a Korean concept blending sorrow and longing, to craft deceptively simple lyric poems about loss, love, and separation. His single published collection, Azalea (Jindallaekkot), released in 1925, remains one of the best-selling and most beloved poetry collections in Korean-language literary history, and its title poem is memorized by generations of Korean schoolchildren on both sides of the peninsula. Kim So-wol studied in Seoul and briefly in Tokyo before returning to his home region, where he struggled financially in his later years and died in 1934 at the age of thirty-two. Despite his short life and small body of published work, his accessible, musical style profoundly shaped the development of modern Korean poetry, and he is honored today as a foundational literary figure whose legacy transcends the later political division of Korea.
Sources: Kim So-wol, Azalea (Jindallaekkot), 1925 · Peter H. Lee (ed.), The Columbia Anthology of Modern Korean Poetry
No quotes attributed to Kim So-wol yet. Browse KP quotes →
More Poets
Dorothea Mackellar
She wrote "My Country", the iconic poem celebrating the Australian landscape.
Nizami Ganjavi
He authored the Khamsa, five narrative poems including Layla and Majnun, a foundational work of classical Persian and Azerbaijani literary heritage.
Muhammad Fuzuli
He wrote the Azerbaijani Turkic epic "Leyli and Majnun" and is considered one of the greatest classical poets of Azerbaijani literature.
Mak Dizdar
He wrote Stone Sleeper (Kameni spavač), a landmark poetry collection inspired by Bosnia's medieval stećci tombstones.
Li Bai
He is one of the most celebrated poets in Chinese history, a defining voice of Tang-dynasty poetry.
Du Fu
He is regarded as one of the greatest Chinese poets, whose work vividly captured the suffering of his era.