A Political Analysis of the Poem: "Does Spring Come Also to These Ravished Fields?" Using the Essay "A Brief Survey of the Present Condition of Korea"

Upon reading both the essay and the poem, one can make many connections between the two. The Cold War, as described by the Encyclopedia Britannica, was "waged on political, economic, and propaganda fronts, and had only limited recourse to weapons." This political, more economic based war led to the "Soviet-supported communist government of North Korea invading the U.S.-supported South Korea in 1950, setting off an indecisive Korean War that lasted until 1953" ("Cold War" 444). The first line of the poem: "Unto this land no more our own, does spring come also to these ravished fields" leads one to believe that the writer is referring to North Korea after the Soviet invasion (Lee 150). In the essay, Dr, Lee says: "The people in the North are suffering not only from economic ruin but also from mental and spiritual suffocation" (Lee 39). This can lead one to the assumption that the use of "spring" in the poem is referring to the unlikelihood of a time of prosperity coming to the "ravished fields", or Soviet-controlled North Korea; ravished meaning: "seized and carried off by force" ("Ravished" 1157).

One can be led to believe that in the second stanza of the poem, "I go, as if in dreams, along a lane that cuts the fields like parted hair, to where the blue of sky and green earth meet" is an analogy for the separation of Northern and Southern Korea along the 38^th parallel, which increasingly became more and more of a political border between the two parts (Lee 150).

Lee describes the division of Korea by the Iron Wall of the 38^th parallel as having "cut our country into two halves, destroyed our homogeneity as a nation, undermined our wholesale economic structure, and proved a fundamental barrier to the unification of Korea," which would explain why the poem refers to a "lane that cuts the fields like parted hair." Lee also says, "The political systems of the two regions differ so entirely as to create a feeling of being two separate alien lands," further supporting the link between that particular line in the poem and the content essay. (Lee 38).

The sixth stanza of the poem reads: "Lone as I am, my steps are cheery! For the happy meandering brook dances past the thirsty fields with rippling songs of self sung lullaby" (Lee 150). One can infer that the "brook" is probably a reference to the more liberated, U.S.-controlled South Korea and the "self-sung lullaby" is probably talking about the promise of escaping the oppression of Soviet-controlled North Korea. The lines: "Hand me a hoe, that I may tread this rich soft-swelling earth until my ankles are weary, with recompense of honest sweat," are most likely referring to the farmers of North Korea, which Lee says: "are suffering under a heavy burden of taxation in kind, amounting to seventy-to-eighty percent of their products," and are "in destitute conditions with over-taxation" (Lee 38, 150).

In stanza number eight, the lines: "I walk dizzy all day with limping steps, between the green joy and green sorrow," are again, referring to how much better South Korea is in comparison to its northern counterpart (Lee 151). Lee describes the North as having "neither an independence of the legislature, the executive and the judicature, nor sanctity of election, nor freedom of association." He claims that "the civil liberties and property rights that should form the basis of a state are being denied and violated," (Lee 38). Lee describes Southern Korea basically as being in a better all-around condition than the North, stating: "We have progressed with great strides in many spheres of national activity-industrial, educational, social and political. Food shortage has somewhat been assuaged by imports from the U.S. and economic rehabilitation effected to a considerable extent" (Lee 41). Upon comparing these two one can easily gather that the "green joy" refers to Southern Korea while the "green sorrow" refers to the more devastated and horribly treated Northern Korea. The last line of the poem: "But long since have our fields been ravished; our very spring may soon be plundered" can lead one to the conclusion that this is a reference to the despair and hopelessness felt by North Korea after enduring the Soviet's reign for an extended period of time (Lee 151)

In conclusion, after developing and understanding of the essay, one could say that the poem is an analogy for the thoughts and feelings of Soviet-controlled Northern Korea's people as a whole during the period in which the Iron Curtain was established at the 38^th parallel, as they looked on at the U.S.-controlled Southern Korea and watched the latter do better politically, socially, and economically until the end of the Korean War on July 27, 1953 ("Korean War" 957).

Works Cited

"Cold War." The New Encyclopedia Britannica. 15^th ed. Vol. 3. Chicago, IL: Encyclopedia Britannica. 1998. 444. Print.

"Korean War." The New Encyclopedia Britannica. 15^th ed. Vol. 6. Chicago, IL: Encyclopedia Britannica. 1998. 957-958. Print.

Lee, Insoo. "A Brief Survey of the Present Condition of Korea." Inside Cloud Cuckoo Land. The Association for Textual Study and Production: Alabama. 2008. Print.

Lee, Insoo. "Does Spring Come Also to These Ravished Fields?" Inside Cloud Cuckoo Land. The Association for Textual Study and Production: Alabama. 2008. Print

"Ravished." Def. 1. The American Heritage College Dictionary. 4^th ed. New York: Houghton Mifflin. 2007. Print.