There are many ways to classify poems, which can be divided into different categories according to different principles and standards. The basics are as follows:
Narrative poems and lyric poems
This is divided according to the expression of the content of the work. (1) Narrative Poetry: Poetry contains relatively complete story lines and characters, which are usually expressed by the poet's passionate singing. Epic, story poem and poetic novel all belong to this category. Ancient Greek Homer's epics such as Heriat and Odyssey; China poet Li Ji's Wang Gui and Li Xiangxiang and other story poems; Don Juan by British poet Byron and yevgeni onegin by Russian poet Pushkin. (2) Lyrics: It mainly reflects the social life by directly expressing the poet's thoughts and feelings, and does not require complete stories and characters. Such as love songs, carols, elegies, elegies, pastoral songs, satirical poems, etc. There are many such works, so I won't list them one by one. Of course, narration and lyricism are not absolutely separated. Narrative poetry is also lyrical, but its lyricism requires close combination with narrative. Lyric poems often describe some fragments of life, but they can't be spread out, and they must obey the needs of lyricism.
Metric poetry, free verse, prose poetry and rhyme poetry.
This is classified according to the phonological meter and structural form of the language of the work. (1) Metric poetry: It is a poem written according to certain formats and rules. It has strict rules on the number of lines, the number of words (or syllables), the tone and rhyme, the antithesis of words and the arrangement of sentence patterns. Such as the metrical poems, quatrains and songs in China's ancient poems and the European sonnets. (2) Free verse: it is a newly developed poetic style in modern Europe and America. It is not limited by metrical rules, has no fixed format, pays attention to natural and internal rhythm, and uses rhymes roughly similar or without rhymes. The number of words, lines, sentence patterns and tones are relatively free, and the language is relatively popular. Whitman, an American poet (1819-1892), is the founder of European and American free verse, and Leaves of Grass is his main collection of poems. This poetic style has also become popular in China since the May 4th Movement. (3) Prose poetry: it is a literary genre with both prose and poetry characteristics. There are poetic artistic conception and passion in the works, which are often full of philosophy, paying attention to the rhythm of nature and the beauty of music. The length is short, like prose, and it does not rhyme, such as Lu Xun's Weeds. (4) Rhyme: It belongs to a literary genre. As the name implies, it generally means that the end of each line of poetry must rhyme, and the poem reads like a ballad. Rhyme here refers to modern rhyme, which belongs to a new style of poetry, similar to the popular rhyme of Fang on the Internet. Debuted after 2000.
Modern Poetry and Contemporary Poetry
According to the stage of poetry development. (1) China's modern poems: the poems before the first half of the 20th century are called China's modern poems; (2) China's contemporary poetry: Poetry after the second half of the 20th century is called China's contemporary poetry.