Years ago I was at a Memorial Service for an Air Force pilot who lost his life in a plane crash when this poem was read. It has always stayed with me especially Veteran's Day when all of our Veterans are honored for their service to this Nation!
High Flight
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious, burning blue,
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high unsurpassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God. Pilot Officer Gillespie Magee
No 412 squadron, RCAF
Killed 11 December 1941
In Joplin Missouri one of the television stations used to sign off with that poem. That was in the mid 60s. That's where I first heard it. It's nice. Thank you.