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Sijo Robert Z
Melbourne Australia    Professional Martial Artist with vision of gradure in Poetry or what may be just rhyming diddlysquat.

Poems

Johnny Noiπ  Oct 2018
Sijo
Johnny Noiπ Oct 2018
Sijo (/ˈʃiːdʒoʊ/; Korean pronunciation:       [ɕi.dʑo])
is a Korean traditional poetic form
that emerged in the Goryeo period,            flourished during the Joseon
Dynasty, and is still written today. Bucolic,
metaphysical and cosmological themes are often
explored. The three lines average 14-16 syllables,
counter-theme (3,5) and completion  (4,3).
Sijo may be narrative or thematic  and introduces
a situation in line 1, development in line  
2, and twist and conclusion in line 3.   The first half
of the final line employs a “twist”:
a surprise of meaning, sound, or other device.
Sijo is often more lyrical and personal than other
East Asian poetic forms,   and the final line
can take a profound turn.             Yet, “The conclusion of sijo is seldom epigrammatic or witty.
A witty close to a sentence would
have been foreign to the genius of
stylized Korean diction in the great sijo periods.”
They told me it was metal,
but I didn't believe a word.
But now I find it's iron
of the strongest, finest kind.
Ah! Here is my little bellows,
I think I'll melt it down.
The form of Sijo is basically the following -

3     4
4     4

3     4
4     4

3     5
4     3

Where each number represents a phrase of syllables, with a line break in between (space over about five spaces). In three stanzas of two lines each, the first stanza is an introduction, the second stanza is a development of the first, and the last stanza is a conclusion. See some of the examples of Sijo inside.