David
Al Purdy declares Earle Birney to be "one of the best poets in Canada"(1). Earle Birney has received a number of honors for his writings and teachings: "the Governor-General's Award twice, a first Borestone Mountain poetry award, the Lorne Pierce Medal for Literature and several Canada Council Awards"(1). Birney's poetry is remarkable for its narrative power and striking imagery. Margaret Atwood included in her book The New Oxford Book of Canadian Verse his major works: "Anglosaxon Street", "Slug in the Woods", "Bushed", "David" and, "The Bear on the Delhi Road"(vi). According to Peter Aichinger, Birney's use of imagery is carefully coordinated with his use of theme (47). Birney's "David" is of that nature and therefor, because of its' reputation, its' prolific imagery and its content it should in fact be included in the imagery section of the Literature anthology text book. It would only seem appropriate that "David" would be a part of the anthology collection, for Birney's work ties directly into Kirszner and Mandell's definition of imagery, as a "language that evokes a physical sensation produced by one or more of the five senses"(793). "David" tells a story of two friends, Bob the nar
And blinding seracs I slid to the milky wrangling Ed Jewinski believes that "Bobby posses a naive and sentimental view of Nature, and David attempts to teach his younger friend the necessity of living in a world where beauty and magnificence have value only when death is recognized as both necessary and inevitable"(176). The poem's tone changes drastically when Bobby loses his foot hold and tragically causes David to fall. To exemplify this change in the mood of the story; Birney uses his skill with imagery to change the tone of the story. Birney uses the majestic and the dull, gloominess of the environment to portray that mood. Peter Aichinger believes that Birney's "David" is an "outstanding example not only of his ability to depict the glorious scenery of the Rocky Mountains, but also of his technique of coordinating the images with the theme of the poem"(47). In the beginning of his poem the two characters attempt to get away from work, and to get away from the "air that was steeped/In the wall of mosquitoes"(3-4) and to retreat into the beauty of nature. Bob and David escape On the humped moraine and into the spectral larches, Away from the wind, and landed in gentian and saxifrage
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Approximate Word count = 1331
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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