The poetic world of So wol Kim is closed to the most common original symbol of our nation. The archetype has been repeated many times ranging from ancient to modern for a long time and it is the priori conditions that enable underlying behavior patterns of human beings which will be repeated. The archetype means “the format of psychical action inherited”. It is the ability of individuals in unconsciousness and the psychology acts of a nation’s collective unconsciousness beyond individuals. The historical, cultural experiences which are the subjects of dreaming and the images of ethnic myth may be reflected in the image group of archetype. The archetype is revealed in various literatures as well as in myths, dreams, formalized social behavior patterns through narrative envisions, the types of characters, the images. If this archetype is concretely manifested in literature, the sympathy which is easily united from readers will be aroused. That is why the archetype image shows the property of magic sympathy which previously acquired the reader’s emotional identification before analysis being held with transcending the function of information delivery.
The critical content of So wol Kim across his poetic world is the love that penetrates into dead. Therefore, his poetic life dominates love, death, separation and longing. Those poetic materials are the patterns of meaning for original imagination which is most commonly repeated in human history. So wol Kim shows the patterns of meaning for original imagination which desperately sings through the traditional picture elements and sentiments. So his poetry generally procures the property of magic sympathy which previously acquired the emotional union before analysis being held.
His poetic start is the death of his lover. But the poetic narrator doesn’t approve the death. So he sets up the death to separation in his life. That is why the rhetorics of irony, paradox frequently appear in his poetic grammar. Because the dead has to be set up as the alive. Also, his poetic world dominates the longing sentiment. Because as the longing would be strong, as passionate as his love for the person who doesn’t exist in his world. If the longing for his lover who doesn’t exist in his world reaches the limit, the poetic narrator will reveal the shamanistic aspect which enters into the next world. The completion of love can be possible through entering into the next world. But the poetic narrator pays his death for it. It seems to be related to his natural death at an early age.