As I was climbing up the stair - Analysis

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As I was climbing up the stair

As I was climbing up the stair

I met a man who wasn’t there;
He wasn’t there again today:
Oh how I wish he’d go away!

Anonymous

 
This poem was part of my childhood experience of poetry. Not that I particularly regarded this as a poem. My father would occasionally say these words. As a child we thought it ridiculous and a little silly, a little amusing. How can anyone see something that isn’t there – it’s just not possible. Perhaps children tend to always see things on face value.

As I was climbing up the stair

We used to go up the stairs to go to bed. Climbing suggest a struggle and difficulty. Of course quite often we were made to go to bed when we didn’t want to go. Our bedrooms were somewhat a little scary too being isolated from the rest of the house and at times the place of nightmares.

These words could mean something entirely different to face value.  For instance they could be saying as the struggle of life unfolds.

I met a man who wasn’t there;

How can you meet someone that isn’t there? The answer could be that the person is not there to everyone but you – the person created by you in your mind.

Another alternative is that the person was there and true to everybody – but you, for some unknown reason, are unwilling to recognise the existence. A beggar in the street could fall into such a category.

He wasn’t there again today:

This imagined or real man is not an isolated incident. This line gives an on-going flavour to the situation. Is it a man or does the man represent something else which is feared?

Oh how I wish he’d go away!

There is something amusing about this line when we take the situation as silly and on face value. If we give different interpretation then it is a clear desire not to have this ‘man’ around – whether it is avoiding a beggar in the street or something much more sinister carried around with the person preventing, limiting or hindering the life of the person.

Perhaps the stanza is a lesson in facing up to reality … any thoughts?

It is an interesting exercise to create your own ‘silly’ words. Here is a variation on the above …

As I was climbing up the stair

As I was climbing up the stair

I met a lady who wasn’t there;
She wasn’t there again today:
Oh I’m so glad she’s here to stay!

I’ll leave it to the reader to give thought on the nature of this person and the relationship.

And here is a new stanza in similar vein …  

The yellow flower

The yellow flower caught my eye

with petals bright and gold against the sky
but how I wished it wasn’t true
that all its colour was so blue!

Again I’ll leave it to the reader to interpret.

Perhaps it is easier for a yellow flower to be blue? – but I give no more a clue.