After reading Earle Birney's poem "David", I began to question exactly what the true meaning of friendship is. Helped along by a deadline from my sadistic English teacher, this was the result.

�Many will say they are loyal friends, but who can find one who is really faithful?�-Proverbs 20:6. The impregnable bond that joins friend is one of ceaseless fortitude. Every human being hopes he will be able to rely on his friends, but when the time comes, he shirks the responsibility that befalls him to his friend in need. This propensity of human nature to run for cover when an obligation to a friend presents itself in prevalent throughout the annals of human history. To what extent can we reasonably rely on friends? Can we expect anything at all? Said Ralph Waldo Emerson of friendship: �The only way to have a friend is to be one�. In order to qualify any response to the afore-posed perennial query, one must reexamine what it means to be a friend. From true friends, we can expect loyalty and commitment, unabashed respect and reverence, criticism, and above all, help when we require it most. As Shakespeare wrote in The Passionate Pilgrim in 1599:

He that is thy friend indeed
He will help thee in thy need.

In his poem �David�, Earle Birney conveys the essence of friendship in the context of the desperate need of which Shakespeare speaks. Conveyed within the lyricism of Birney�s tragic poem is a message of friendship: We may only rely upon friends if we trust ourselves to be relied upon. The trust that holds friendship together is a mutual trust, and if wither party does not participates, the friendship disintegrates. The relationship between Bob and David in Birney�s poem is one of this genre of absolute friendship. The part of the poem that demonstrates the extent of this inter-reliance is Bob�s decision to push a paralyzed David to his death after a 600 foot drop. The majority of human beings would shy away from the execution (no adverse connotations intended) of such a final request. Birney�s poem is a riveting example of what we can reasonably expect from the truest of friends: help in our hour(s) of need. Few of us mortals will ourselves faced with the situation confronted by David and Bob, but the lessons that every individual can leave the poem and life experiences with is simple: In order to give, we must be first willing to receive. In friendship, the indispensable mutual responsibility to trust, loyalty and assistance must be omnipresent, or friendships become hollow shells of their potentials. The only thing we can reasonably expect of friends is what we expect out friends to expect of us.

� A slender acquaintance with the world must convince every man that actions, not words, are the true [criteria] of the attachment of his friends �
~ George WASHINGTON (1732-1799).
Letter to John Sullivan, 15 December 1779

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