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 narrator and David, who are working as surveyors out in the mountains of rural Canada. The poem depicts the two youths' growing friendship, their love for the mountains and essentially the journey of Bob's loss of innocence and the "last day of his youth"(184). Bob is taken to David because of his vast knowledge and begins to take note of David's teachings. After introducing David, and describing their escapes into the mountains, the narrator describes a particular climb they have been anticipating for months. As they climb the "The Finger"(40), Bobby slips, David reaches out to stabilize him: but "the strain crumbled his foothold. Without/A gasp he was gone"(96-97). Bobby finds him b...