Style

Lyric

“Climbing” is a lyric poem. Lyrics are short, first-person poems focusing on the speaker’s emotional or mental state. They are often melodic and often based in the imagination rather than in the empirically verifiable real world. The word lyric derives from the Greek lyre, meaning a musical instrument once used to accompany poems. Clifton’s poem stimulates the imagination when she describes her ghostly double preceding her on the rope of life. The poem’s melody is due in part to its repetition of the phrase “maybe i should have.” As one of poetry’s oldest forms, the lyric has evolved into a variety of kinds including the ballad, the ode, and the sonnet. Most people today recognize the plural form of lyric as referring to a song’s words. Well-known writers of lyric poetry include Emily Dickinson, William Shakespeare, and Robert Frost.

Punctuation

Clifton uses lower case throughout the poem, de-emphasizing the idea of new beginnings that capital letters at the start of sentences mark. Using the small i throughout illustrates a speaker who, paradoxically, doesn’t take herself too seriously. This is paradoxical because lyric poems are all about the “I.” The single capitalized word is “Sixty,” signifying the importance of that word relative to others in the poem.

Topics for Further Study

• Write a descriptive essay speculating on what you will look like and how you will feel when you are sixty years old.
• Research the subject of body image and aging, then present your findings to your class. Make sure to address the following questions: What about their bodies do women most pay attention to when aging? Is this different from what men pay attention to? How is body image related to race?
• Take an informal poll of people over forty, asking them what they regret most in their lives. What similarities and differences do you see? Were most of the regrets for something they did not do or for something they did? What conclusions can you draw from your findings?
• Draw a time line running from your birth to the age at which you believe you will die, marking it in five-year increments. Under each five-year mark, write a short description of what you did that year or what you believe you will be doing. What does this time line tell you about how you think of your past and your future?
• Review three or four popular magazines such as People, Cosmopolitan, and Ebony, paying careful attention to women’s hairstyles. Are there any connections you can make about hairstyle and age, hairstyle and body type?
• Research the cultural significance of hairstyles such as the Afro, the Mullet, the Mohawk, even the cleanly-shaved head, and report your findings to your class. Then lead a discussion on hairstyles, asking your classmates to explain what their hair says about who they are.