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영어

The coexistence of will and sentiment is a great characteristic of Yu, Chi-Hwan's poems that perplexes the critics to yield contradictory remarks. This paper focuses on that his love poems were excluded as a weaker counterpoint to his poems of 'will' or seen even as the failure of his attempt to maintain his 'will'. I argue that it was only a superficial reading of his own words that 'I would not wallow in love and hatred,' not a result of actual analysis of his love poems. His love poems were not at all his failure in expressing the world of will power. He maintained the world of sentiment and love by his own will and love acquired a special meaning for him as a self-purification mechanism and a medium to alert his sense of solitude. As the sentiment of his love poems alerted him to his solitude, the senses and sentiments accrued from it rarely remained as such but elevated to reasoning and will. Solitude in his poems rarely meant to express a sentiment but was a crucial step stone of contemplation and reflection towards the wholistic being, his ultimate aim. That even love was animated by will was the unique sentiment and characteristic of Yu's poems. Of course this will was the spiritual power of the poetic self that persisted for self-elevation. Therefore, his love poems should be understood as another form of his willed expression for his endless strife for self-elevation, not raw sentiment revealed when he lost his will power.