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Poetry
A Poem from History: High Flight
Special Feature by Amazing Kids!
John Gillespie Magee, Jr.
Author of High Flight
High Flight
By John Gillespie Magee, Jr.
Age 19, when the poem was written, in 1941
This poem, despite its sad and noble history, has been recited by President, Astronaut, and Royal Air Force personnel alike. Written by 19-year-old Royal Air Force pilot John Magee, Jr., High Flight is a poem with color and clearly depicted drama, but it is fun, easy to read, and brimming with poetic emotion. It captures the pure ecstasy of a pilot in flight, high above the world and the cares thereof.
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 nor 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.
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