Poetry in the making
Forget “Gangnam Style,” the bigger-than-life song sensation that swept in from South Korea. David McCann is rather big in Korea too. Not for his dancing or his audacious music videos, but for his lyrics, yes. And for his music. At a recent PEN International conference in South Korea, McCann, the Korea Foundation Professor of Korean Literature, pulled out his ukulele and sang a sijo, a Korean poem, to a standing ovation. McCann had re-arrived. Renowned in Korea as an authority on sijo (shee-jo), a poetic form often compared with Japanese haiku, McCann’s portrait can be seen flashing from the cover of “Literature and Thought,” a monthly Korean publication. “Am I a celebrity there?” McCann pondered. “I wouldn’t say that. But in some literary circles, I am.” Sijo builds on what haiku starts. Similarly constructed from three lines, sijo lines have four parts allowing for additional syllabic legroom, instead of haiku’s rigid five-seven-five syllabic structure....