At first the day goes well. Art and David enjoy working together. It is, however, the father's inability to see his own son as a child that begins the course of events. Art leaves David to wait for him near the skeleton of a dead horse. Like most seven-year-olds, this frightens David and his father is gone for what probably seemed like a long time to a child. Consequently, David goes home on his own which angers his father. Instead of punishing David, Art treats him coldly. In reality, David wanted attention even if that was in the form of a beating or scolding. This need drives David to force his father into acting like a father. David jumps off a roof which upsets his father, but that's not enough. David wants to know that his father cares enough to be angry so he dumps a pound of staples. This finally does the trick and forces Art to stop this charade of friends and become a father. David is strangely grateful for the beating that he finally gets. "He didn't...

For the first few seconds he didn't make a sound... Then he began to cry" (Buckler). David wanted to cry and have a normal parent-child relation with his father. The friendship relationship did not serve the child's needs. Art acted like a Dad, then David got to act like a child.
Art probably thought that he was doing the right thing by his son by treating him as an equal, but the parent-child relationship is a necessity for both generations. Someone has to be in control and someone has to be harnessed. That may not always be a pleasant experience for either as Larkin's poem states. Nevertheless, children need to be children just as adults need to be parents. The father in Buckler's story is forced into understanding this by the actions of his son.

Works Cited

Buckler, Ernest. "The Harness."

Larkin, Philip. "This be the verse." 23 February 2007. http://www.xs4all.nl/~ace/Literaria/Poem-Larkin.html