[4] His first collection of poems, Bunsuryeong (분수령 Watershed) was published in 1937, and the following year, Nalgeunjip (낡은 집 Shabby House) came out.
[5] After the end of World War II in 1945, Yi returned to Seoul to become a member of the Korean Literature Construction Center.
After he joined the Workers' Party of South Korea in 1947, Yi became a key member of the Seoul branch of the Federation of Korean Cultural Organizations.
He then served as publicity manager of the Federation of South Korean Writers before finally defecting to North Korea.
[8] Through Watershed (1937) and Shabby House (1938), Yi describes the poor and miserable life of the colonized mostly based in the northern part of Korea.
The narrator's pain is not limited to personal matters but it related to the experiences of his neighbors, and further expanded to the colonial Korean communities.
[10] His first collection, Watershed, describes his own life where he had to do labor work to make ends meet near the northern border area after he had lost his father.
The title piece, “Violets” depicts the Korean people who suffered persecution after they were thrown out to the barren northern border area under Japanese rule.
[14] Violets highlights the poet's inner side rather than illustrating the reality of that time probably because the poems were written near the end of the colonial period when the oppression got all the more severe.
[18] 1956, 1st prize in poetry of the Literary Art Awards celebrating the 5th anniversary of North Korean People's Army (“Selected Poems of Pyeongnam Irrigation”)[citation needed] “Yi Yonhak” Doopedia 이용악 “Yi Yongah” Encyclopedia of Korean Culture '이용악' 검색