Focusing on the opposing relationship between Kim Eok"s poetics and Sowol"s poetics, this study aims to explicate the nature of the soul and the shadow reflected in Sowol"s ‘Poetic Soul’ and his unique poetic rationale inherent in them.
Kim Eok"s notion that a poet"s self is directly projected on objects during the process of composing a poem emphasizes the creativity of the poetic soul that can artificially transform objects. Kim Eok"s rationale for the creativity of self is similar to the power of a modern subject that dominates and controls objects. In his world of art created by the infinite creativity of the poetic soul, objects are transformed into mirrors that are held up to reflect the poet while the poetic self enchantingly shines ‘alone’ without others. In contrast, the (poetic) soul of Sowol becomes the mirror itself that is held up to reflect the poet"s world instead of seeing the images reflected on objects by projecting the soul on them. Sowol voluntarily relinquishes the power (authority) of self and dearly accepts the objects that shine into him. This approach to poetic composition leads to a natural revelation of the harmony between the world and the self. Inherent in this approach is Sowol"s unique rationale that such intimate relationship between the self and the world belongs to what is more fundamental than the inner world of the solitary self.
The shadow in ‘The Poetic Soul’ is described as a dusky light that surge from this relationship between the soul and the objects. Literary critics usually perceive this shadow merely as a phenomenon that is partially reflected (or transplanted) with the poetic soul which is pure and has a perform form. However, Sowol views the shadow as the unique nature of existence that reveals the harmonious relationship between the self and the world. Inherent in the shadows that faintly shine at night everywhere, there is the relationship of intimacy in which brightness and darkness do not split in binary opposition nor reduce to oneself through self-identity. The appearance of shadow shining dimly demonstrates that the unique nature of the self and the world is respectively surrounded by the intimate relation ship between the two. For poet Kim Sowol, harmony is not a virtual illusion that must be created artificially through decadent symbols as is the case of Kim Eok"s poetry, but is more akin to the facts of reality that still exist everywhere in the surroundings.