This poem explores the change around us and coming to terms with this change. Owen Marshall uses word choice and metaphor to explore the concept of change.

In the First Stanza the writer’s dad is nostalgic and takes his own children back to a setting in his childhood. “failed farm” and “Just split timber, calico windows…” and “Nothing remained…” are all examples of word choice. The adjectives used to describe the writer’s childhood farm , give us the idea nostalgia is futile and the farmhouse stood no chance against the torrent of time. The next paragraph uses adjectives such as “moss-encumbered” and “wet” which highlight the inevitability of decay.

In the last Stanza, the writer proposes with a metaphor: “…that endless strangely forested darkness”. The father’s death is painted under a nice, restful light, telling the reader in the end his dad came to terms with his own death. The author is telling us to live in the present, and accepting change, because change is inevitable.