As the school year begins, students will likely encounter poetry forms like haiku, blackout, or found poetry, but why not sijo? Sijo is a lesser-known Korean form of poetry. According to Robert Lee Brewer in Writer’s Digest, “Form is fun. I notice that many poets don’t need to be wrestled into writing forms, because they see forms for what they are: poetic puzzles or games. Sure, forms can be challenging, but challenging in the same way as learning to dribble a basketball or finish a crossword puzzle.”
Poetic forms are frameworks that poets use to shape their expression. They provide guidelines for meter, rhyme scheme, line length, and sometimes content. Forms like haiku, blackout poetry, and found poetry are often taught because they are relatively simple and offer creative restraints. Haiku, for example, with its 5-7-5 syllable structure, is concise and accessible, making it a popular choice. Blackout and found poetry involve manipulating existing texts, which can be seen as a creative exercise accessible even to beginners.
On the other hand, forms like sijo, a traditional Korean verse form, may be less familiar outside specific cultural or literary circles. The reasons could be rooted in historical and cultural factors as well as educational curriculum choices. Western educational systems may emphasize forms that are more prevalent in English literature or that align with prevailing literary movements, so most American students may not encounter sijo or similar non-Western forms. Exploring a variety of forms, including lesser-known ones like sijo, not only enriches students’ understanding of poetry but also broadens their creative toolkit and appreciation for diverse literary traditions.
About Sijo
A sijo is a three-line Korean form of poetry with each line divided into four segments. The first line is the introduction and uses groups of 3, 4, 4, and 4 syllables. The second line is the development and uses groups of 3, 4, 4, and 4 syllables. The third line includes a twist in the 3- and 5-syllable sections and a conclusion of a 4-syllable section and a 3-syllable section. The total grouping for the third line is 3, 5, 4, and 3.
Example
In 2019, alongside The Sejong Cultural Society (a nonprofit that advances awareness and understanding of Korean culture in the United States), I started offering an online Sijo course for teachers. Educators attend the five-week asynchronous class to make their curriculums more diverse, to ask questions about sijo theory or translation, to discuss cultural considerations and what exactly makes a sijo a sijo, to learn something new, and to implement Korea’s poetry form into their classrooms.
In these courses, I’ve met close to 200 practitioners—each with an individual perspective from a specific content area or age range. At the end of each course, teachers share lesson plans that challenge me to see the possibilities of a 700-year-old, 45-syllable Korean form of poetry in American schools.
Hashtag Poetry
Theodore Frank teaches world history and world affairs at Milwaukee Marshall High School and starts with what his students know: social media.
He asks, “How long is an effective social media post?”
Students write responses and then share their answers in a whole-class discussion. Mr. Frank adds to the discussion information about X’s (formerly Twitter) character limits, modern-day attention spans, and how to convey messages concisely.
With the remaining class time, Mr. Frank’s students write posts using a character counter. This allows students to explore how stories can be told in 280 characters.
The next class, Mr. Frank asks his students, “How long should a story be?”
Frank says that with these constraints students “found it difficult because they were trying to tell the entire story and wanted to use more details than the character limit allowed. The link was that some writing styles need to be concise—at times there can be no wasted characters.”
Students reference the stories they told in their posts and agree: a story can be short. There is no limit, and no rule, for how short or long a story should be.
Mr. Frank uses this lesson to introduce students to sijo. Now that students are considering brevity, Mr. Frank shares example sijo with his students; he says the previous discussions and social media exercise helps them to understand sijo’s three lines and groups of syllables. Finally, he asks students to convert one or more of their posts into a sijo and suggests his students revise and submit their poem to The Sejong Cultural Society’s annual sijo competition.
From One East Asian Country to Another
Chuck Newell teaches English at Notre Dame High School in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Mr. Newell says, “Teaching students how to write sijo and how it is different from haiku is a good first step in showing students the often subtle difference between East Asian peoples. Learning about [sijo] can also help Korean and Korean/American students connect with their own culture.”
Mr. Newell asks his students to write a haiku about an outdoor, season-centered activity, focused on a moment in time. He also requires a title. He shows them this example he wrote:
Spring Mountain Biking
Pedaling through trees
Odor of honeysuckle
Flash of wildflowers
Then, using the same title and subject, Mr. Newell’s students turn their haiku into a sijo, adding a turn at the start of the third line. Mr. Newell shares the following sijo he created from his haiku:
Spring Mountain Biking
Pedaling through the forest, dappled sun on the handlebars
The sweet smell of honeysuckle and the flash of wildflowers
Almost makes one forget your straining lungs, your burning muscles
After writing, Mr. Newell’s students discuss poetic forms, how they differ, and what they suggest about the differences between cultures. Understanding these two poetic forms might be a window into the two cultures.
Newell says, “Korea and Japanese cultures are similar, but the two countries see a distinct difference between themselves. American students should begin to understand this difference since there are Korean and Japanese students in American schools.”
Haiku and sijo are both three-line poems based on imagery that were developed about the same time, but each culture puts its unique stamp on this artistic expression.
He says, “Some students benefit from having a template like this to expand upon their ideas and images from their haiku. However, some students like the creative challenge of creating a sijo on their own. Still, having them think about the concrete imagery and poetic form of a haiku assists them in creating another three-line poem.”
Below are some examples from Mr. Newell’s class:
River carries thoughts,
Silently, effortlessly.
Blind, he prances by
The river rushes thoughts silently and effortlessly.
The wind rushing by as he dances along the riverbed.
A shot reverbs through the forest. He falls. The river carries on.
Ballet Class
Girls wearing tutus
Music flowing through their ears
Dancing at the barre
Ballet Class
Girls wearing leotards and big buns on the top of their heads
Toes pointed in their slippers and arms extended to their side
Music flowing through their ears while guiding them through each step
A silent night drive
No one else on the streets now
Just me and the moon.
Tonight, I have decided to go on a little midnight drive.
There is no one out this evening, I seem to be all alone.
CRASH! of course there was no one out. My eyes stared at the full moon.
Poetry as Activism
Dr. Frank G. Karioris is a faculty member in the history department at The Branson School, a private school just north of San Francisco. They teach sijo in a class called “Poetry as Activism.”
Dr. Karioris’s students come with a substantive background in poetic forms; though, like most poetry students, the sijo is new to them. After learning about the form, students seek to grapple with the way that form and content can come into conversation with each other. As part of this, students consider the following questions:
- What are you passionate about?
- What is it that you want to change?
- What specifically needs to be changed?
- How would you change it?
Students use in-class time to write, and Dr. Karioris encourages students to let the words flow, saying, “All faucets take time to get hot water.”
Students utilize their brainstorm—focusing on scene, characters, tone, and moments of action—to begin working these elements into their sijo.
Dr. Karioris reminds students that sijo were first and foremost meant to be songs. To help draw out this parallel, the class listens to songs with activist roots, such as:
- No Doubt’s “Just A Girl”
- Elvis’s “If I Can Dream”
- Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power”
- Billy Bragg’s “Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards”
- Rage Against the Machine’s “Killing in the Name”
- Gil Scott-Heron’s “Revolution Will Not Be Televised”
Having heard the songs, Dr. Karioris asks students to think about the form of the song and how it plays a role in presenting the content. Students consider this in relation to the sijo that they have been building.
For homework, Dr. Karioris asks students to write a sijo about one of the activist songs they listened to.
In class the next day, students continue to work on sijo drafts and peer-review. Dr. Karioris instructs students on appropriate creative workshop protocol—all feedback should be productive (rather than destructive); that the readers should provide their perspective (using “I” statements); that the poet should refrain from responding to comments until the end; and that all critiques are provided, and it is up to the poet which are helpful and which are not.
After revising, students share their sijo with the entire class and conclude with a discussion, reflecting on their poems and the progress they made.
Sijo Goes to College
Barb Edler teaches English Composition to freshmen at Iowa Wesleyan University.
She introduces sijo poetry by going over sijo’s format and its purpose. Students look at samples of winning sijo and listen to the Elephant Rebellion’s music videos (where they have put sijo to song).
In writing their own sijo, Mrs. Edler wants her students “to notice the importance of word choice.” Mrs. Edler also shares sijo she’s written with her students.
The next day, she asks students to brainstorm topics they feel strongly about. Then her students look for images they think might project the theme of their poem. They review that image and list words that will help illustrate their ideas. She asks her students to “think of words that evoke an emotion (pathos).”
She also provides the following directions: “Use this graphic organizer to help you develop your sijo. Although your sijo can be about anything, consider how you might want to share an insight, problem, or issue through your sijo.”
Think about a topic you want to share through your sijo. Start by brainstorming a few. Choose one you feel passionately about. Then consider what you want to share about your topic. What kind of perspective do you want to share? How can you introduce the readers to your topic? Think of a variety of ways to describe your topic. | Syllable Count 3 4 4 4 |
The second line of your sijo should develop your topic. How can you illustrate your topic? Think of language that creates images and emotions. Think about how you can create sound through the language you choose. | Syllable Count 3 4 4 4 |
The final line needs to show the twist. What words and ideas will you use to show a subtle shift? What unexpected or surprising change can you share? This may be a good place to think about the irony of your topic or a change you think needs to take place. Consider how you can persuade your readers through this final line. | Syllable Count 3 5 4 3 |
After writing, students share sijo with partners and participate in a peer review, answering following questions:
- Has the writer followed the correct syllable count for each line?
- What is their main message? Is it clear?
- How effective is their language? What words sing in the poem? What words might need more consideration?
- Is the twist clear? Is there some sort of irony or humor used to help create the twist? What would you applaud? What suggestions might you make?
- Review the sijo’s punctuation. Is there anything you think is missing or that you think is not necessary as far as punctuation?
- Has the writer titled their sijo? If not, discuss potential titles with the writer.
Mrs. Edler ends the unit asking her students to publish their poems using Canva or another app. She displays the sijo around the room, and students participate in a gallery walk, viewing the sijo and writing positive comments on sticky notes so the writers can review readers’ responses.
To end the unit, Mrs. Edler conferences with her students and provides a final review. Then, her students write a short reflection about their process and enter their sijo into the Sejong Cultural Society’s annual competition. In future lessons, she’s considering publishing all students’ sijo in a booklet they can take with them or hosting her own sijo competition.
Sijo & Visual Art
The ways to teach sijo are only limited by imagination and can incorporate elements of visual art. Melissa Peña, who teaches at June Davis Elementary in Fort Worth, Texas, asks her students to create a sijo that explains the day and night cycle, while also explaining why the sun seems to move across the sky. Her students start by drawing a picture to explain the revolution of the moon around the rotation of the earth. After drawing, students use a drafting worksheet to help them compose, revise, and peer edit sijo. To end the study, students answer questions on the sijo-writing process, as well as on how the earth rotates and revolves around the sun.
Aaron Jura teaches English language arts, and he says it is “often difficult to get students to establish a sense of place when examining elements of literature or history.” In his sijo lesson, he wants his students to not only examine the form of sijo and write their own but also demonstrate an understanding of place. To start his sijo unit, he displays an image of a landscape, and students list things they notice as important in the image. Then students paint their own pieces, focusing on a place. After painting is complete, Mr. Jura introduces sijo and tells students, “The goal of this project is to write a sijo poem that emotionally evokes the sense of place previously depicted in your abstract landscape.” Students write poems and then use a Sharpie to transfer their completed sijo to their abstract image.
The following example, Mr. Jura says, “represents a low country landscape and could easily be incorporated in a history unit on Reconstruction or an ELA unit on a novel with a strong sense of place, like Where the Crawdads Sing”:
Celebrating Korea’s Poetry Form
The more teachers explore—poems, books, colleagues’ approaches—the more they can share with students. One of my junior students, Gabby W., said, “My favorite type of writing that we did was for sure the sijo. I love Korean culture and think it’s so beautiful. Learning about this type of poem was so freeing. I love that I learned things from a different part of the world and not just about things that pertained to me.”
Another student, Ben H., said, “Sijo was fun. Despite the constraints in syllables, it was still completely open for my own creative decisions, and I could write about anything. This let me explore self-hatred, brotherhood, nature, and exercise as possible topics, as it wasn’t locked into fiction or nonfiction. The third line twist was also pretty fun to play around with, as I normally wouldn’t try to have a surprise come out of left field.”
Another student, Siya S., said, “My favorite assignment this semester was the sijo poems because I love the rule of having a plot twist at the end, so it was fun to think of different plot twists. More than writing sijo, I really loved reading sijo, so I could read all the plot twists. It’s the type of poetry that makes you want to read more and more.”
In the first weeks of school, exploring diverse forms of writing like sijo not only enriches students’ creative experiences but also broadens their appreciation for global cultures and literary techniques. This early engagement with innovative and varied writing styles can set a tone for the rest of the year—fostering a classroom environment where curiosity and creative expression thrive.
Featured photo by moren hsu on Unsplash.
Elizabeth Jorgensen is a writer and teacher. Her most recent works include a middle grade biography, Gwen Jorgensen: USA's First Olympic Gold Medal Triathlete and Hacking Student Learning Habits: 9 Ways to Foster Resilient Learners and Assess the Process Not the Outcome.She can be reached through her website: www.lizjorgensen.weebly.com