Where the Power of the Pen Still Lives On   By Hwang Hieon-san on Oct 31 2014 07:26:00 Vol.10 Winter 2010 In Korea, poetry is still loved by the public, and many people aspire to be poets. Here’s a look at the influences and inspirations that propelled Korean poetry into the modern age.     Korea, like many East Asian countries, was greatly damaged during the progression of modern history. With a throng of foreign warships swarming to its shore, the country could no longer stay a recluse. After Korea was colonized by neighboring Japan, the people of Korea who had always had a deep respect for literature, tried to escape hardship by embracing Western civilization. The most urgent priorities for Koreans were learning the modern sciences and establishing a stable economic foundation. But it was also important for them to understand the literary forms of the modern Western world and begin practicing a new form of literary art in order to imbue their language with a unique power, as well as awaken to their fate and boost national pride in the midst of despair. The Korean people grasped the essence of Western literature in a relatively short period of time, and immediately set to creating outstanding works of modern literature. Such a feat was made possible due to a literary tradition of over a thousand years spent mastering Eastern classics and literature, but also due to the urgent call of the day. The fetters of colonization, however, could not be removed for more than three decades; liberation led to national division with the South and the North, divided by an inflow of foreign ideologies and a bloody, fratricidal war.