(1) Pursuing ideals is the main content of Xu Zhimo's early poems, such as Searching for Stars, Untitled and Haiyun. In this kind of poems, we can see the optimistic, enterprising and uplifting spirit during the May 4th Movement, and we can also see the poet's desire to get rid of backwardness and poverty and move towards progress and prosperity. This kind of poetry has a distinct political color, and the ideal pursued by the poet is a capitalist society of "freedom, equality and fraternity".
(2) Dissatisfaction with the reality is the main content of Xu Zhimo's later poems, such as I don't know where the wind blows, the guard, the autumn worm, the West Window and so on. The situation of this kind of poems is more complicated. Because Xu Zhimo's ideal is just a fantasy in modern China, he is called "China bourgeoisie", "the first mountain" and the last poet. He often shows dissatisfaction and disappointment in disillusionment. The poet's dissatisfaction is not only manifested in the exposure of warlord wars and sympathy for the lower class people, but also in his incomprehension and criticism of the proletarian revolution.
(3) Love poems occupy a large proportion and an important position in Xu Zhimo's poems. Among them, many poems praise pure love, euphemistically and beautifully, and show the characteristics of the times in pursuit of individual liberation, such as the happiness of snowflakes. It is worth noting that there are still many works that express the pursuit of ideals and dissatisfaction with the real content, all in the form of love poems, such as Hai Yun.