HIGH FLIGHT

By John Gillespie Magee, Jr.

September 3, 1941

Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;

Sunward I have 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 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.