August’’ that year, it is as if Pak were saying,
‘‘Stop! This is not the way it was supposed to be.
We had such good plans. We had hopes and
dreams. Where did all that go? Can we get it
back?’’ Of course, this man who had endured so
much and risked his life for his country answered
in the affirmative. Writing the second half of
‘‘River of August’’ was his way of saying that
he believed that if the Korean people looked into
their hearts, remembered where they had been
and what they once stood for, they could rekin-
dle their national spirit, reestablish their values,
and rise to glory as a people.
Japanese oppression, World War II, the
Korean War, the power struggles in South
Korea in the early 1960s, ‘‘all of these historical
events left deep traces in Pak’s poetry,’’ writes
Yi Sang-so ̆p. Pak’s poems are not records of
history, Yi Sang-so ̆p adds, but the ‘‘sublimation
of his varied experiences....His poetry bears
excellent witness to the belief of the supremacy
of poetry over history, an article of faith held
by all poets from ancient times.’’ Pak applied
the moral vision he gleaned from nature to the
unrest in Korea when writing ‘‘River of
August.’’ In nature he saw not only beauty,
but truth, goodness, and God’s love. In his
essays, Pak expressed the conviction that imag-
ination is more powerful than history because
imagination does not care what has already
happened. Imagination is concerned with what
may happen and, therefore, can serve as inspi-
ration for action. Pak felt compelled to bring
history into ‘‘River of August’’ because he
thought a reminder would be motivational.
The poetic manner in which he writes this
reminder pulls the reader into the patriotic
vitality and fervor of the rest of the poem. The
South Koreans, a people who love poetry, even-
tually created peace and prosperity for them-
selves. Surely poems suchas ‘‘River of August’’
havesomethingtodowiththeirsuccess.
Source:Lois Kerschen, Critical Essay on ‘‘River of
August,’’ inPoetry for Students, Gale, Cengage Learning,
2010.Melodie Monahan
Monahan has a Ph.D. in English and operates an
editing service, The Inkwell Works. In the follow-
ing essay, she discusses William Wordsworth’s
‘‘Tintern Abbey’’ and Pak’s ‘‘River of August’’ in
order to show how poets use natural images to
stimulate their readers’ memories and to encourage
their readers to pursue a beneficial course of action.
Many poets use nature as the frame of refer-
ence in their poetry. The techniques poets use
vary to serve their purposes, and so do the mean-
ings they invest in nature. Both William Words-
worth and Pak Tu-Jin used natural images in
order to explain their sense of what really matters
in human experience. Both Wordsworth’s ‘‘Tin-
tern Abbey’’ and Pak Tu-Jin’s ‘‘River of August’’
illustrate how poets use natural elements in their
poetry to carry meaning. Leaving an urban
setting in order to visit a natural setting is a
common human experience, something many
readers understand and many have experienced.
The poets draw on this common experience in
order to convey their poem’s message.
In 1798, while the turbulence of the French
Revolution continued to trouble people across
the English Channel in England, William Words-
worth wrote a poem about two visits he made to
the River Wye, which wends its way along
the English-Wales border past the ruins of Tin-
tern Abbey. In the late eighteenth-century andThe Milky Way(Image copyright Photodynamic, 2009. Used
under license from Shutterstock.com)
River of August