The writer shows the physical difficulty of his climb not only by using words, but by the structure of the poem. The poem is a free verse poem, with no apparent pattern. The lack of structure of the poem shows the exhaustion of the poet. The poem is not aligned properly, and the shape is very narrow to represent the shape and steepness of the mountain. When the poem is turned to the side, we can see the different lengths of the phrases in each line form a rough path with many upward and downwards slopes. This shows the harshness and difficulty of the climb. There are no stanzas in the poem, instead Noyce writes the whole poem in one single fragmented unit, to resemble the long and endless journey he is facing.
There is no steady movement or rhyme throughout the poem. The rhyming pattern is irregular, and the irregular appearance of rhyme represents the disoriented mind the poet is in. The occasional emergence of rhyme creates a sense of steadiness and repetitiveness, showing that climbing the mountain is very tedious and monotonous for the poet, thus resulting in the exhaustion. There is a frequent use of enjambment, for example in line 11 to 12 "a flat step is holiday", the sentence is cut in two and put in different lines, and this results in the hastening of the pace of the poem. The use of enjambment also represents the breathlessness and exhaustion of the poet, Noyce is trying to use enjambment to represent a rapid breathing pattern to show he cannot speak in full sentences because of his fatigue. The short sentences and the lack of stanzas makes the readers more anxious to finish the poem, thus mirroring the way Noyce wants the climbing experience to be over so he can enjoy a holiday. The first 4 lines is repeated again in the last 4 lines and this shows the repetitiveness of the climb and the overwhelming tiredness that the poet faces when doing the same thing, climbing, over and over again.