‘Conrad Kain the Canadian’

Earle Birney: Conrad Kain
by Ron Dart

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The glow of our rocks is richer by the life of an Austrian goatherd,
Of Conrad Kain the Mountain man, of Conrad Kain the Canadian.

-Conrad Kain, Earle Birney

There is not much doubt that Birney’s David (1940) is the most dramatic and vivid mountaineering poem in Canadian literature. The sheer momentum, graphic rock slab images and tragic tension packed into the epic poem make it the definitive classic of mountain culture in Canada. David and Other Poems was published in 1942 and won the much-coveted Governor General’s medal that year. I remember, most clearly, hearing Birney read David in the 1970s – it was an experience not to be missed.

Birney wrote many other poems on the mountains. Once high upon a hill (1930), Daybreak on Lake Opal: High Rockies (1946), Takkakaw Falls (1950), Climbers (1950), and Bushed (1951) are just a few of Birney’s poetic missives that evoke much about mountain life.

Conrad Kain came to Canada in 1909, and Birney was alert to such a significant moment. He realized he had to honour Kain, so forty years after Kain’s arrival in Canada, Birney’s poem, Conrad Kain was published in December 1949 in National Home Monthly. The poem was published again in the Canadian Alpine Journal (1951, pgs. 97-100). Birney made it abundantly clear that he was informed and inspired to write the poem by Where the Clouds Can Go (edited by J. Monroe Thorington & published by the American Alpine Club, 1935).

Conrad Kain is a longer poem, much like David, but unlike the fictional David, Conrad Kain is biography turned into succinct and compact poetry. It is Birney at his alliterative and alluring best, and Kain is held high as the model and icon of the authentic Canadian mountain man.

There are 14 sections in Conrad Kain, and each section invites and walks the reader into Kain’s chronological and maturing journey. Section I deals with early years in Austria, and Section II with Kain’s short sojourn in Saskatchewan. The poem begins to pick up tempo in Sections III-V as Kain gets rooted and grounded in Banff and Canadian mountain life. Sections III-V are shorter, but Kain’s transformation and flexible growth are nimbly tracked and traced. Section VI hovers like a windhover, looks down on Kain and ponders his unique character. “Yet he learned to win the men of the West and to master their peaks By his animal patience and grace and the craft of his ancestors.” Sections VII-IX point the path forward in Kain’s unfolding life: the Purcells, a reputation as a fine guide and trapper and his trek in New Zealand are duly noted. “Conrad’s name grew tall with the Rockies” and “he mocked the mountain’s fame, By a grand traverse of its peaks with one wiry determined female of sixty.”  

Sections X-XIII are reserved for Kain’s ascent of Robson. Birney lingers and describes this climb in exquisite detail. Images are anchored well, and the tale is belayed in a manner that has many an affinity with David. I find Sections X-XIII the most convincing and hold me for many a read—it’s almost a poem in itself—”icerobed and stormcrowned Robson” chills yet challenges—it’s as if Birney is with Kain, McCarthy, and Foster on their perilous climb to Robson’s upper throne. Section XIV is almost anticlimactic after the nail biter of Robson. The poem winds to a reflective and wondering close. What was the point of it all? Why is Kain important? “He is dead and his conquests faded.” And yet! And yet! “The glow of our rocks is richer by the life of an Austrian goatherd, of Conrad Kain the Mountain man, of Conrad Kain the Canadian.”

It would be quite unfair and unkind to compare David and Conrad Kain. David is a much stronger, more dramatic and intense poem that has held the imagination of Canadians for decades. Most of us took the poem in with our mother’s milk and studied it annually when in school. There are sections in Conrad Kain that almost match the vivid ethos drawn forth in David—the sections on Robson conjure up such a heightened sense of adventure massaged by mountain skill, dedication, loyalty, and courage. There is no poem, though, in Canadian literature that celebrated the life of Kain, and Birney, to his poetic credit, walked us to such a mountain vista—both he and Kain should be welcomed into the Canadian mountain hall of fame for their efforts.

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Ron Dart has taught in the Department of Political Science, Philosophy, and Religious Studies at the University of the Fraser Valley since 1990. He was on staff with Amnesty International in the 1980s. He has published 40 books including Erasmus: Wild Bird (Create Space, 2017) and The North American High Tory Tradition (American Anglican Press, 2016). [Editor’s note: Ron Dart has recently reviewed books by Ross A. Lockhart, Peter D. Scott, Paul Zizka, Glenn Woodsworth & David Woodsworth, Marc Bourdon, and Paul Zizka for The British Columbia Review. He has also written about his and Arnold Shives’ lunch with mountaineering icon Jim Wickwire, and contributed five essays: Milton Acorn, Canadian mountain culture and mountaineering, From Jalna to Timber Baron: Reflections on the life of H.R. MacMillan, Roderick Haig-Brown & Al Purdy, and Save Swiss Edelweiss Village.]

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The British Columbia Review

Interim Editors, 2023-26: Trevor Marc Hughes (non-fiction), Brett Josef Grubisic (fiction)
Publisher: Richard Mackie

Formerly The Ormsby Review, The British Columbia Review is an on-line book review and journal service for BC writers and readers. The Advisory Board now consists of Jean Barman, Wade Davis, Robin Fisher, Barry Gough, Hugh Johnston, Kathy Mezei, Patricia Roy, and Graeme Wynn. Provincial Government Patron (since September 2018): Creative BC. Honorary Patron: Yosef Wosk. Scholarly Patron: SFU Graduate Liberal Studies. The British Columbia Review was founded in 2016 by Richard Mackie and Alan Twigg.

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