Summary
In "Climbing My Grandfather," the speaker decides to free-climb his grandfather without using gear such as rope or a net. The speaker begins by climbing his grandfather's dusty and cracked shoes. It is easy for the grandson to scramble up his grandfather's trousers by pushing to get a grip on the weave of the pants. When the speaker reaches his grandfather's overhanging shirt, he changes direction and travels sideways on the belt until he reaches his grandfather's earth-stained hands. The nails on the grandfather's hands are splintered, and this makes them easy to climb because they give good purchase. The skin of the old man's fingers are smooth and thick, and the speaker compares them to "warm ice."
The speaker is surprised by an old scar on his grandfather's arm, which he moves over gently in order to reach the shoulder. There, he rests for a while in the shade of his grandfather's head, making it a point not to look down. The speaker pulls himself up the loose skin of his grandfather's neck. His grandfather smiles, and the speaker stops to take a drink while sitting in his grandfather's teeth. After, the speaker crosses his grandfather's rough cheek and stares into the old man's brown eyes, watching the pupil change shape. Moving on, the speaker goes up and over the wrinkled forehead and arrives at his grandfather's thick white hair. At the summit, the speaker gasps for breath and lies down, watching clouds and birds move above him. The poem ends with the speaker noticing his grandfather's warmth and focusing on the slow pulse of his grandfather's "good heart."
Analysis
The speaker in the poem "Climbing My Grandfather" compares his grandfather's body to a landscape that he climbs. This conveys the speaker's love for his grandfather as well as his passion for the environment, which may reflect Waterhouse's own familial and environmental concerns. Waterhouse naturalizes the grandfather's body as a landscape that the speaker discovers more about. The twenty-seven lines of the poem are included in a single stanza, visually reflecting the enormity not only of the grandfather himself, but of the task at hand (climbing him). This climbing represents the speaker growing up and getting to know his grandfather better, as well as moving backward in time through memory.
"Climbing" one's parent or grandparent is reminiscent of a childhood experience in the way that children look up to their older family members. Adults may appear as tall and strong as mountains from the perspective of a child. Though the age of the speaker in "Climbing My Grandfather" is not specified, he is presumably an adult due to the slightly formal tone he uses. For example, one phrase later on in the poem reads, "for climbing has its dangers." The poem also precisely follows the order of the grandfather's body parts from bottom to top as the speaker journeys to the summit, which shows an ability to recount narrative events in chronological order. Despite all this, there is still a sense of childlike wonder, discovery, and growth in the poem.
The title “Climbing My Grandfather” seems rather ambiguous, but the first line clarifies that the meaning of the title is both literal and metaphorical in the poem. The first line reads, "I decide to do it free, without a rope or net," and seems to return to the experience of being a child again despite the poem being written in the present tense. This provides insight into the characters of both the speaker and the grandfather. The words “free” and “without a rope or net” symbolize the open, adventurous, and wild side that many children possess. Free climbing is a dangerous endeavor, but the speaker easily decides to do it anyway. Rather than be cold and imposing, the grandfather is receptive to this climbing, showing that he welcomes a relationship with his grandson.
“Climbing My Grandfather” contains many vivid images as the speaker describes his ascent. In the line “First, the old brogues, dusty and cracked," the description of the grandfather's shoes suggests that he is a hard worker and perhaps moves around a lot outside. In the early twentieth century, brogues were a kind of outdoor, country walking shoe worn by men. The grandfather has chosen not to replace his old cracked shoes, demonstrating an attitude that it is better to use things until they completely fall apart instead of throwing them away at the first sign of disrepair. Later in the poem, the grandfather is also shown to have an “earth-stained hand" with splintered nails, which further supports the notion that he works with his hands outdoors.
The extended metaphor about mountaineering is sustained by the materiality of the grandfather's clothes and the physicality of his body. For example, the speaker describes how it is "an easy scramble onto his [grandfather's] trousers, / pushing into the weave" as he "[tries] to get a grip." These lines portray the physical interaction between the speaker and the landscape of his grandfather's body. Some parts are easier to climb than others, and the speaker gives equal importance to each part by recounting the whole journey. Terminology such as "traverse," "give good purchase," "place my feet," "cross," and "reaching the summit" remind the reader that the speaker is also literally climbing his mountain-sized grandfather. The literal action of climbing can be interpreted as a metaphor for growing up and for the speaker getting to know his grandfather more intimately.
As the speaker travels up his grandfather's body, he makes discoveries about the landscape (or in other words, about his grandfather himself). One example is how the skin of the grandfather's finger is "smooth and thick / like warm ice." This simile at first appears contradictory because ice cannot be warm. But Waterhouse subverts the cliché of "cold as ice" to focus on the texture of ice rather than its temperature. Metaphorically, this oxymoron functions to portray the grandfather as a warm and fatherly person rather than a cold and imposing one. The grandfather is receptive to the climbing taking place, which portrays him as a kind of gentle giant.
Another discovery the speaker makes is "the glassy ridge of a scar" on his grandfather's arm. No explanation is given as to how the grandfather got this scar—what is more important is the physical contact between the speaker and his grandfather. However, the scar can be interpreted to represent all of the hurt and wounds sustained by the grandfather in his life. The speaker "gently" places his feet in the old stitches, showing a sense of care and reverence.
Certain details about the grandfather indicate that he is still able and functioning, and that his body is not yet breaking down with age in the speaker's memory. For example, the grandfather's shoulder is "still firm," his hair is still "thick...soft and white," and he still has his teeth. All of these areas provide the speaker with a place of respite. The speaker rests in the shade at his grandfather's shoulder, making sure not to look down and lose his courage. Waterhouse writes that "climbing has its dangers," suggesting the difficulty of growing older as well as the danger of spending too much time looking backward in one's life. The speaker then pulls himself up the "loose skin" of his grandfather's neck to reach his smiling mouth. This smile allows the speaker to enter the open mouth and "drink among the teeth." Both alliteration and assonance appear in the following line ("Refreshed, I cross the screed cheek") which evokes a sense of balance as the speaker refreshes himself. The image of a small being inside the mouth of a giant man would normally evoke danger, but instead, there is a sense of trust and safety.
As the speaker climbs higher, he continues to encounter the face of his beloved grandfather. Eventually, he reaches the summit of his grandfather's hair, which is described as "soft and white / at this altitude." Again, a comparison is made to snow or ice that focuses on texture rather than temperature. This, along with the fact that the speaker feels his grandfather's heat, shows that the grandfather has a warm personality. The final lines of the poem make even more evident the love and respect that the speaker has for his grandfather. As the speaker lies exhausted at the summit, gasping for breath and watching the clouds and birds circle above, he feels his grandfather's heat and knows "the slow pulse of his good heart."
The grandfather does not represent the whole world—there are still birds and clouds beyond the grandfather's terrain, but the speaker can safely observe the rest of the world from the vantage point of his grandfather's hair. Though the visual focus continues upward towards the sky, the speaker ultimately brings the focus back to his grandfather by pointing out his heat and "the slow pulse of his good heart." The word "knowing" implies a deep communion between the speaker and his grandfather, as well as between the speaker and the landscape.
