One of the most expressive literary methods, which the author uses in "Fly away Peter", is the poetic description. This method helps to show clearly the main themes of the novella: the constancy of the life and the cruelty of the war. An example of this method is «Water was the real enemy, endlessly sweating from the walls and gleaming behind the duckboard slats, or falling steadily as rain. It rotted and dislodged A-frames. It made the trench a muddy trough. They fought the water that made there feet rot...," This was the description of the water, which shows the cruelty of war. This poetic description shows how two different sides battle and try to resist the spontaneous and unpredictable enemy. In the same time, there is no visible fighting between them.

The other example of the poetic description is: "" She sat on the beach now and watched the waves, one after another, as they rose, gathered themselves, stood poised a moment holding the sun at their crests, then toppled. There was a rhythm to it." This extract expresses the constancy of life and shows that in spite of death the life is interminable and it goes on over and over. There are a lot of other examples of the poetic description in the novella, which are used to brighten up the subject.

The one more literary method, which is used in the novella, is the repetition. With the help of this stylistic element, Malouf tries to express the theme of the constancy of life. The chapters about the birds are described in the beginning of the book in Australia, then in Europe, and one more time in Australia the readers are again told about the birds. There are also several moment, where the repetition is used for the expression of the cruelty of war.