This study was written to introduce the life and poetic world of Gu Yeong, a literary man of the late Joseon Dynasty, to the academic world, using his poetry as a subject of discussion. Gu Yeong’ poetry expresses the sentiments of life. Therefore, this study looked at his poetry by classifying them as government-employ poetry[宦路詩], seclusion poetry[隱遁詩] and monody[挽詩] based on the situation facing Gu Yeong.
government-employ poetry[宦路詩] are poetry that depicts the emotions of 8-9 years of office life that he performed twice in the later part of his lives. These poetry were depreciate himself who was too old to go to a lower office, and were to scold himself for his wrong chul-cheo(出處), such as having an office life for the purpose of eating and living. These poetry also strongly reveal the nostalgia that he desires to return to his hometown.
His early seclusion poetry[隱遁詩], which he returned to his hometown after he quit his office life, show that he is suffering from the same psychological conflict like a stranger in his hometown. But over the years, he has shown a feeling of being satisfied with a comfortable mind by teaching his followers since he built JeongAnDang[靜安堂]. The poetry of his later years, when he left his office life again and returned to his hometown, shows the progress of emotion about getting older. His poetry show emotion of being satisfied with free and leisurely life at first. But later his poetry shows that as he gets sick and grows older, his life is vain, comparing his decay with the constant cycle of nature.
Monody show different views of death according to who the subject is and the emotional situation in which he is. The poetry depicted the death of the monk as a liberation and described it beautifully and mysteriously, and in front of the death of his friend who lived a hard life, he pitied his hard life and on the other hand he blessed the yeogeong(餘慶) which would go to his descendants. In addition, the poetry expressed a heartbreaking sadness of mourning and shedding tears about the death of his relatives who lived nearby and stayed with his daily life. Also, the poetry expressed death as a place to return to, and death in a sense of a moment of separation that pledged to meet again, and death was also a river that can not return to life.