Though often said to be less successful than their counterparts in fiction writing, poets also experimented with the vernacular in new poetic forms, such as free verse and the sonnet. Given that there was no tradition of writing poetry in the vernacular, these experiments were more radical than those in fiction writing and also less easily accepted by the reading public. Modern poetry flourished especially in the 1930s, in the hands of poets like Zhu Xiang (朱湘), Dai Wangshu, Li Jinfa (李金發), Wen Yiduo, and Ge Xiao (葛蕭). Other poets, even those among the May Fourth radicals (e.g., Yu Dafu), continued to write poetry in classical styles.
Though often said to be less successful than their counterparts in fiction writing, poets also experimented with the vernacular in new poetic forms such as free verse and the sonnet. Given that there was no tradition of writing poetry in the vernacular these experiments were more radical than those in fiction writing and also less easily accepted by the reading public. Modern poetry flourished especially in the 1930s, in the hands of poets like Zhu Xiang (朱湘) Dai Wangshu, Li Jinfa (李金發), Wen Yiduo, and Ge Xiao (葛蕭). Other poets, even those among the May Fourth radicals (e.g., Yu Dafu), continued to write poetry in classical styles.