Excerpts from "David" by Earle Birney

David and I that summer cut trails on the Survey, 

All week in the valley for wages, in air that was steeped 

in the wail of mosquitoes, but over the sunalive week-ends 

we climbed, to get from the ruck of the camp, the surly 

Poker, the wrangling, the snoring under the fetid 

Tents, and because we had joy in our lengthening coltish 

Muscles, and mountains for David were made to see over, 

Stairs from the valleys and steps to the sun's retreats.

...................

In August, the second attempt, we ascended The Fortress. 

By the Forks of the Spray we caught five trout and fried them 

Over a balsam fire. The woods were alive 

With the vaulting of mule-deer and drenched with clouds all the morning, 

Till we burst at noon to the flashing and floating round 

Of the peaks. Coming down we picked in our hats the bright 

And sunhot raspberries, eating them under a mighty 

Spruce, while marten moving like quicksilver scouted us.

...........................

Somehow I worked down the fifty impossible feet 

To the ledge, calling and getting no answer but echoes 

Released in the cirque, and trying not to reflect on 

What an answer would mean. He lay still, with his lean 

Young face upturned and strangely unmarred, but his legs 

Splayed beneath him, beside the final drop, 

Six hundred feet sheer to the ice. My throat stopped 

When I reached him, for he was alive......

..........................

I said that he fell straight to the ice where they found him, 

And none but the sun and incurious clouds have lingered 

Around the marks of that day on the ledge of the Finger, 

That day, the last of my youth, on the last of our mountains. 

Earle Birney ,1942.

"David" is too long a poem to post here, but is well liked by Canadians for its Rocky Mountain setting,  metaphor, and imagery.  English teachers enjoy the theme of balance and beauty of nature vs loss.

The argument of whether this poem is based on a real incident (plus a short bio of Birney) is found here:

 http://www.tru.ca/arts/e_birney/english/level3/level4/doc00701.htm