The language used to describe the boy's experiences is sophisticated. The incidents are perceived from an adult perspective, a product of recall reinterpretation which shows the self change that has occurred. The first two stanzas consist of single sentences which, in their entirety, seem to reflect the boys confidence in his weapon against the night. "He slept- breaks this sequence and enjambment links the following stanzas, which serves to illustrate the upheaval of the boy's comprehension. Religious terms - disciples, host, monstrance, bless, exorcise and holy - are used in the beginning of the poem to show the child's faith in the power of the sun. The use of the word resurrected at the end to describe the rising sun is ironic as the boy has lost his faith in the sun, however it represents hope in the future. The poem is written like a narrative, showing the child's complete innocence until he encounters something that alters this. Change requires growth, which in turn requires at some point the loss of childhood innocence. The boy symbolises the journey into maturity - and how growth and change can be painful yet is necessary in the process.
Through the study of the poem, Father and Child, we can understand that change occurs within oneself through the process of growing up and gaining understanding from experience. This comprehension is shown through the child's nave perception of death in the first section, Barn Owl, and the acceptance that life must end yet sorrow at her father's impending death in Night Fall. .
At a rebellious age, a child experiments with the constraints of authority, endeavouring to seek control for herself. This experimentation leads to an important revelation; death is real and unclean. The fast paced and confident language, "Daybreak; the household slept. I rose I crept out with my father's gun-, shows the single-mindedness and belief in self of the young.
