Well, son, I’ll tell you:
Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.

The speaker opens the poem with these lines, where she addresses her son and prepares him to hear a discussion about some of the obstacles she’s faced in her life. Perhaps more importantly, the speaker also introduces the figurative framework that will guide the entire poem. That is, she sets up the extended metaphor of life as a staircase. Such a metaphor for living powerfully suggests the idea of progress. The very notion of upward mobility on the staircase of life implies movement toward higher social status and improved standards of living. As the speaker will go on to document, however, the staircase of her life is strewn with hazards that have obstructed her upward mobility. Hence why she declares from the outset that she hasn’t gotten to climb a “crystal stair,” which symbolizes the kind of wealth and class privilege to which the speaker has no access. Notably, the speaker will repeat this declaration in the refrain that closes the poem: “And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair” (line 20).

It’s had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,    
And places with no carpet on the floor—
Bare.

In lines 3–7, the speaker describes the state of the particular staircase she’s had to climb. This certainly isn’t a pristine, cleanly swept “crystal stair.” Instead, the speaker has climbed a rather ill-maintained wooden staircase that’s riddled with hazards, including “tacks,” “splinters,” and “boards torn up.” In the context of the poem, these hazards symbolize the various obstacles the speaker has faced as a working-class Black woman. The poem’s speaker faces challenges that are linked to each of these three aspects of her identity. As a member of the working class, she has limited access to wealth, property, and upward social mobility. As a Black person, she must contend with racist discrimination. And as a woman, she faces sexist discrimination. When considered in aggregate, these challenges “intersect” and often exacerbate each other. Thus, to endure as a working-class Black woman in America requires the capacity to maneuver around the many “tacks,” “splinters,” and “boards torn up” that inevitably obstruct the way forward.

But all the time
I’se been a-climbin’ on,
And reachin’ landin’s,
And turnin’ corners,
And sometimes goin’ in the dark
Where there ain’t been no light.

In lines 8–13, the speaker turns from her enumeration of hazards to emphasize how, despite them, she has persevered in her trudging climb up the staircase of life. The speaker doesn’t go on about her ability to persevere just to toot her own horn. She speaks on this theme to inspire her son to find his own resources to endure in the face of life’s challenges. She alludes to the sometimes-dire conditions of her struggle when she describes having to climb in darkness. Though perhaps upsetting for her son to hear, the speaker wants to be real with him and not sugarcoat the realities of facing a racist society as a Black person. The message is clear: if she has found the strength to go on, then he can too.

So boy, don’t you turn back.
Don’t you set down on the steps
’Cause you finds it’s kinder hard.
Don’t you fall now—

In lines 14–17, the speaker addresses her son directly for the first time since the poem’s opening. Despite spending the first two-thirds of the poem developing a positive example of what perseverance looks like, it’s notable that here the speaker emphasizes what not to do. Three times in four lines the speaker cautions her son with the negative imperative: don’t. In each case, she describes a specific action that would represent a failure to persist in the face of challenge. That is, he mustn’t go back down the stairs, he mustn’t rest on the steps, and he mustn’t collapse from exhaustion. It is imperative for him to avoid each of these actions if he wants to endure. Although the speaker’s repeated use of “don’t” could be read as mildly threatening, it is also clear that she speaks with an intention of care. And in any case, sometimes success is better guaranteed by knowing what not to do than by knowing what to do.

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