晚清是「中國三千年未有之變」的特殊時代，也是傳統抒情文學中心逐漸轉化，詩歌從古典向現代形態過渡的關鍵時期。而晚清敘事詩全面反映當時社會實景，生發時代深沉的哀嘆，頗具詩史特徵，使詩歌呈現新的創作形態與藝術追求，實有深入探究之必要。
值得注意的是，晚清敘事詩作者偏好大数述的取景（特別指時代災變和重大歷史戰事），長詩作品為數甚夥，歷來少見。是以本文追溯樂府詩的長歌傳統，說明晚清詩「非長不行」、「非哀不可」的必然性，其次就詩體與類型的運用概況，以擬出晚清敘事詩的研讀重點。文末則運用西方敘事學觀點，集中探討五首晚清敘事詩名篇，以見其敘事模式。因此，本文除提供閱讀中國古典詩的新法外，也希望給予中國敘事詩與西方敘事學對話的空間。

The late Qing Dynasty is an era that sees a tremendous change as never before in the history of 3000 years in China, and not the least of it is the transition from the classical to the modern in the area of poetry. The narrative poem in the late Qing Dynasty, uttering the deepest lamentation for the suffering of its time, fully reflects its social situation, and is thus in every bit worthy of the title of epic. The new way of writing in this genre and its artistry compel serious study.
Noticeably, writers of these narrative poems favor grand background (great wars and calamities of pivotal consequence). The length of the poem is also unprecedented in the history of Chinese poetry. This study traces the tradition of the long song of the Music Bureau to explain why the length and the pathetic quality are necessary elements to the new epic in the late Qing Dynasty. It leads to stylistic and genre analysis. The study also includes detailed scrutiny of five exemplary poems in terms of Western narratology in the hope of providing a new method of reading classical Chinese poetry, as well as a dialogue between Chinese narrative poetry and theory of western narratology.