High Flight








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 wind swept heights with easy grace
 
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
 
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod -
 
The high untresspassed 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


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