High Flight (poem for the Columbia astronauts)

none ^ | December 1941 | John G. Magee

[deaconblues]

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. Hovering 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 untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

In December 1941, Pilot Officer John G. Magee, a 19-year-old American serving with the Royal Canadian Air Force in England, was killed when his Spitfire collided with another airplane inside a cloud. Several months before his death, he composed his immortal sonnet High Flight a copy of which he fortunately mailed to his parents in the U.S.A.

[RAY]

TO HIGH FLIGHT - In the Spirit of the Columbia Space Shuttle Astronauts, may their spirit and courage live on!

[Mr. Silverback]

Thanks, deacon, for posting this. I had posted the poem and some other stuff in post 881 of the original "Shuttle Contact Lost" alert thread posted by GRRRRR, but it deserves a thread of its own. Since you already posted the poem, here's the "other stuff":

I plan for the first two lines [of High Flight]to be my epitaph. High Flight is the offical poem of the United States Air Force. Here's a biography and photo of the poet.

High Flight was composed by Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee, Jr., an American serving with the Royal Canadian Air Force. He was born in Shanghai, China in 1922, the son of missionary parents, Reverend and Mrs. John Gillespie Magee; his father was an American and his mother was originally a British citizen.

He came to the U.S. in 1939 and earned a scholarship to Yale, but in September 1940 he enlisted in the RCAF and was graduated as a pilot. He was sent to England for combat duty in July 1941.

In August or September 1941, Pilot Officer Magee composed High Flight and sent a copy to his parents. Several months later, on December 11, 1941 his Spitfire collided with another plane over England and Magee, only 19 years of age, crashed to his death.

His remains are buried in the churchyard cemetery at Scopwick, Lincolnshire.