Shin Sŏk-jŏng’s poetry overflows with Utopian idealism, Taoist transcendentalism, and longing for pastoral leisureliness. And he was a poet who played a major role in building up the tradition of lyricism in modern Korean poetry. But the “lyricism” in his poetry is not an inborn trait of his poetic writings, but a way of attaining poise and calm—eventually, self-consolation—in coping with and coming to terms with the harsh realities. Quite often he sounds like a dreamer; but the “dream” he indulges in is often the world of fantasy and surrealism he conjures up for self- hypnotism.
Shin Sŏk-jŏng lived through an age filled with national tragedies: loss of the national sovereignty, followed by an oppressive colonial rule of his homeland by a neighboring country intent on military expansionism, which lasted for three decades and a half; the tragedy of a civil war in his country, which incurred massive slaughter among compatriots; and a military regime’s dictatorial rule, which, though it somehow paved the road to escaping national poverty, left many a wound while it lasted. A poet cannot but suffer, while witnessing his compatriots’ suffering. And Shin Sŏk-jŏng’s poetry is a summation of the suffering of the Korean nation, as well as of the hope for the future he wished to impart to his compatriots.