Presentation Date:
This session on The Bamboo Grove: An Introduction to Sijo was hosted by the Asia Center on April 2, 2013. It featured Professor David McCann of Harvard's Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations.
The sijo is the most popular and most Korean of all traditional Korean poetic forms, originating with the old songs of the Hyangka of the Sylla Empire (668-936) and the prose songs of the Koryo Dynasty (918-1392). Sometimes likened to haiku for its brevity, a typical sijo poem follows a three-line pattern, with each line containing approximately fifteen syllables. The Bamboo Grove will interest not only poets and students of poetry, but scholars of Korean culture curious to view history through this important and significant form of verse.