Captivated by hand-puppet theater and influenced by the theatrical language used in Taiwanese radio plays, Xiang Yang infused his poetry with a strong narrative element. When read aloud, his poems of that era have much the same feeling and intonations of Taiwanese opera. Take, for instance, "My Puppeteering Brother-in-Law." Here are its last two stanzas, as translated by Katherine Lu:
由於對掌中戲的著迷，加上受廣播劇「演出語言」的影響，向陽的台語詩故事敘述性相當強，朗讀起來有著濃厚的戲曲腔調與韻味，其中以〈搬布袋戲的姊夫〉為最：