Lesson Three - David

Introduction

Lesson Two - "David"
Duration - 4 blocks (4 x 80 min + homework)

"That day, the last of my youth, on the last of our mountains." -  Earle Birney, in "David"

• Consider the nature of friendship.
• What might someone do for a friend that he or she would not do for anyone else?

Resources

Websites
Sawback Trail (near Banff)
Sawback Range 

Unsplash - Photos for Everyone

Documents
"David"
"David" analysis

VIDEO

Lesson

Explore the first two websites on the Resources page.
Study the photos within the site to get an indication as to the difficulties of climbing in the Canadian Rockies.

"Earle Birney (1904-1995) was born in Calgary and raised in the mountain country near Banff and Creston. An only child, he developed a love of books and nature. Birney worked as a manual labourer for two years before entering UBC, first in Science, then English Literature. After his degree, he held a variety of university teaching positions. Birney eventually finished his MA and PhD at the University of Toronto. He taught at U.of T., then, after WWII at the University of B.C. where he eventually became Chairman of the Creative Writing program, the first of its kind in Canada. Along with his poetry, Birney wrote two novels, a collection of short fiction, numerous articles, reviews and radio talks.

"Birney's early poems espouse a desire for order out of chaos. However, Birney's idea of order does not rest in Christian faith, but rather on the value of common man and the humanist virtues of love and compassion. Birney's relationship to nature both respects nature's processes and recognizes the need to struggle against it and against our own tendency to despoil it. Birney insists that humanity has the power to choose, and gives to each of us the power to create our own destiny.

"'David', one of Birney's earliest poems, is also one of his greatest." - youngpoets.ca

Before you read, consider that Canada now has "medical assistance in dying" legislation.

• euthanasia - “the bringing about of a gentle and easy death, as for a person suffering from an incurable and painful disease or in an irreversible coma” – The Oxford English Reference Dictionary
• Some people believe that it is always wrong to end a human life, while others believe that it is acceptable in some circumstances. Think about what you believe?

Read the poem, "David".
Read the analysis of "David".

Assignment

 (100 marks)

Open a new PPT document. Label it E201U2L3surname
Open a new Word document.  Label it E201U2L3surname
In these documents, complete the assignment outlined below.
Submit this assignment using the Dropbox for U2L3 David trailer

Consider the unit question, "What idea does the author develop regarding the significance of a ruling passion in an individual's life?

• Imagine that a filmmaker made a movie out of the story in the poem, "David".
• Your task is to create a trailer for the film - think about the trailers you have seen in theatres.
• Using PowerPoint, create a trailer for the movie version of "David".
• If you would rather create a movie for this assignment, please do. 
  Be sure to save your finished product as something that can be opened generically, that is, while you may need specific software to create it, your audience will not have that specific software to view it.
• You are limited to ten images, one piece of music, and 60 seconds.
• What images from the poem will be important to include in a 60-second trailer in order to provide a gist of the narrative?
• How will you hint at the moral conflict in the poem without giving away the ending?
• What will you create in order to entice people into the theatre to watch the movie for which the trailer is being created?

In the Word document you will ALSO post in the dropbox, fully explain the following:

• Why did you choose EACH ONE of the images that you did?
• Why did you place your images in the order that you did?
• Why did you choose the piece of music that you did?
• How has your trailer addressed the unit question regarding the significance of ruling passion in an individual's life?

Conclusion

After a vigorous life, a minor heart attack, and a debilitating fall out of a tree, Earle Birney suffered a heart attack in 1987 that left him brain damaged.  One of the tragic ironies of his life is that the poet who always feared aging and death, who "hated to be trapped or caged or enclosed, the man who was in favour of capital punishment because he could never have tolerated incarceration, the man who chose the subject of mercy-killing for his major poem, was to be confined to the chronic care ward of a hospital honouring the monarchy he despised in a city he disliked: Toronto's Queen Elizabeth Hospital, for the last eight years of his life."

What might this have to say about pursuing one's passion? About the ironies of life?