High Flight

[schurem]

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,

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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…

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Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept 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,

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– Put out my hand, and touched the face of God."

John Gillespie Magee Jr. (9 June 1922 – 11 December 1941)

Thank you @Anklebiter

[trevorr610]

Luv that poem. It captures the moment.

[Svsmokey]

It is a wonderful poem . Did some research for a history project and found that he was an American , flying for the RCAF . He was assigned to recon Spits , and wrote that poem after his first high-altitude training flight .
Died in a collision with another aircraft in the clouds-aged 19 . It breaks my heart to think what might have been , but we lost a lot of great talents during that war , Magee , Glen Miller , and de Saint-Exupery among them .