In contrast to the clipped, image-based style of Bei Dao, Duo Duo tended to use longer, more flowing lines, and paid more attention to sound and rhetoric. Some of his poems border on the essayistic, such as the 1984 Lessons also translated as Instruction (诲教), which spoke for China's "lost generation" as much as Bei Dao's Answer.
Duo Duo's poems differ from Bei Dao's in their length and emphasis on sound and rhetoric.  The 1984 poem "Lessons" (诲教) exemplifies this, mirroring the themes of China's "lost generation" as both poets address.