Kim wrote monumental poems such as “The Weather Chart” (1936), “Wind Speed of the Sun” (1939), and “The Sea and the Butterfly” (1939) during the Japanese colonial period.

In pursuing a new spirit of poetry, he criticized sentimental romanticism in the 1920s and the movement of the Korean Artists’ Proletarian Federation (KARF), which based its literary theory and practice on left-wing ideologies.

[6] In September 1933, he participated in the foundation of the Circle of Nine, a literary association located in Seoul, with famous Korean writers such as Yi Sang, Lee Hyo-seok, Park Taewon, and Kim Yujung.

[7] While working as a founding member of the association, he played the role of the forerunner in incorporating modernism with the literature of the times and participated in introducing intellectualism with the writers such as Lee Yang-ha and Choi Jae-seo.

He was reportedly abducted by the state political security department of North Korea after the Korean War broke out, and the time and whereabouts of his death have not been known until now.

[13] Kim started his literary career by publishing several poems including “Away to the New Life” in 1930, when he was working as a journalist in the department of arts in Chosun Ilbo.

That is, he claimed that poetry should deliver the spirit of the times by finding and pursuing the balance between modernist techniques and critical social awareness.

[17] In this light, the post-liberation era was the right time for Kim to put his conviction into practice, encouraging the poets to speak for the public in the community life.

In contrast to the gloomy and private atmosphere of The Sea and the Butterfly, Kim showed a strong will to build a new nation in The New Song to beat defeatism of the time.

The former represents the cruel and eerie reality of the colonial era or the new civilization of the times while the latter symbolizes the fragile intellectuals who are unable to put up with the external world.

바다와 나비 아무도 그에게 수심(水深)을 일러 준 일이 없기에 흰나비는 도무지 바다가 무섭지 않다.

청(靑)무우 밭인가 해서 내려갔다가는 어린 날개가 물결에 절어서 공주(公主)처럼 지쳐서 돌아온다.

삼월(三月)달 바다가 꽃이 피지 않아서 서글픈 나비 허리에 새파란 초생달이 시리다.

In addition, Kim’s last collection of poems, The New Song (1948), was recognized for its suggestion of a new direction in establishing a national identity, but was evaluated as lacking maturity as a work of art.