A Hundred Love Poems From Old Korea

"Korea's traditional love poetry is little known in the Western world; indeed, such is the speed of change within Korea today that very few Koreans know much about their love poetry either. The poems run the gamut of the Korean classical genres: hanshi, that is, poems in Chinese characters; hyangga and koryo kayo, the earliest Korean vernacular forms - a unique part of Korea's literary heritage; and the two Choson dynasty vernacular forms, shijo and kasa, the former a short lyrical song form, often compared to the Japanese haiku but actually very different, and the latter an unusual essay-song form for which English poetry has no equivalent. A commentary links the poems against the background of dynastic upheavals, ideological changes and fluctuations in poetry practice."--Jacket.