Friday, October 14, 2005
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 tumblign 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 ever 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.
- John G. Magee, Jr.
This is a favorite poem of mine, first heard in the 1992 Russell Crowe film For the Moment. John Magee enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force when he was just 18 and quickly rose to the rank of Pilot Officer. In September of 1941, he flew a high altitude test flight in a Spitfire V - this poem was written during that flight. Once he landed, he wrote a letter to his parents saying, "I am enclosing a verse I wrote the other day. It started at 30,000 feet and was finished soon after I landed." Three months later (only 3 days after the US entered the war), at age 19, he was killed as his plane collided with another. The first and last lines of the poem are engraved on his gravestone.
On beautiful days like today, this poem always comes to my mind.
and danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumblign 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 ever 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.
- John G. Magee, Jr.
This is a favorite poem of mine, first heard in the 1992 Russell Crowe film For the Moment. John Magee enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force when he was just 18 and quickly rose to the rank of Pilot Officer. In September of 1941, he flew a high altitude test flight in a Spitfire V - this poem was written during that flight. Once he landed, he wrote a letter to his parents saying, "I am enclosing a verse I wrote the other day. It started at 30,000 feet and was finished soon after I landed." Three months later (only 3 days after the US entered the war), at age 19, he was killed as his plane collided with another. The first and last lines of the poem are engraved on his gravestone.
On beautiful days like today, this poem always comes to my mind.
# posted by Sary : 4:08 PM
