Reminder: The 5th Annual Wisconsin Sijo (WiSiJo) Poetry Contest is Still Accepting Entries!
MADISON–Four more weeks for Wisconsinites of all ages to seize this amazing opportunity to win up to $400 and receive a free book by learning a new Korean poetry form and submitting an entry in English! The UW-Madison Center for East Asian Studies (CEAS) is sponsoring the Wisconsin Sijo (WiSiJo, 위시조) competition again for its fifth iteration in collaboration with the Sejong Cultural Society of Chicago.
Don’t know what is sijo is? Sijo is a traditional Korean three-line poetic form consisting of a theme (1st line), elaboration (2nd line), and a counter-theme and conclusion (3rd line). Sijo traditionally explores cosmological, metaphysical, or pastoral themes and consists of 14-16 syllables per line:
So they say there was a gale and frosty snow fell last night?
And the spreading pines were all broken and overthrown?
In that case how about the flowers, what chance have they to bloom?
–Yu Eung-bu (d. 1456)
In the above poem, the first two lines are dominated by heavy, dark, cold imagery—“gale”, “frosty”, “night”, “broken.” The counter-theme in the first half of the third line introduces flowers—light and delicate—into the poem. The two discordant images are then resolved or connected in the conclusion which focuses on the fate of the flowers in such an environment.
Learn more about the history of the competition and last year’s winning entry here.
The fifth Annual Wisconsin Sijo (WiSiJo 위시조) Competition opened in late October this year and will be accepting applications through January 20, 2025. For details on how to enter as well as on how to write sijo, please visit the Wisconsin Sijo Competition page.