High Flight

High Flight

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sun ward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds-and done a hundred things
You have never 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 Gillespie Magee, Jr

John Gillespie Magee, Jr was an American that joined the Canadian Air Force in 1940 at age 18 where he entered flight training. Within the year, he was sent to England and posted to the newly formed No. 412 fighter Squadron, RCAF, which was activated at Digby, England, on 30 June 1941. He was qualified on and flew the Submarine Spitfire.

Flying fighter sweeps over France and air defense over England against the German Luftwaffe, he rose to the rank of Pilot Officer.

On 03 September 1941, Magee flew a high altitude (30,000 feet) test flight in a newer model of the Spitfire V. As he orbited and climbed upward, he was struck with the inspiration of a poem -
"To touch the face of God."

Once back on the ground, he wrote a letter to his parents. In it he commented, 'I am enclosing a verse I wrote the other day. It started at 30,000 feet, and was finished soon after I landed." On the back of the letter, he jotted down his poem, High Flight.'

Just three months later, on 11 December 1941 (and only three days after the US entered the war), Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee, Jr. was killed. The Spitfire V he was flying, VZ-H, collided with an Oxford Trainer from Cranwell Airfield flown by one Ernest Aubrey. The mid-air happened at about 400 feet AGL at 1130 hours. John was descending in the clouds. At the enquiry a farmer testified that he saw the Spitfire pilot struggle to push back the canopy. The pilot, he said, finally stood up to jump from the plane. John, however was too close to the ground for his parachute to open. He died instantly. He was 19 years old.

High Flight was recited at the close of each broadcasting day over the only three TV channels we had when growing up. Give ya an idea as to my age.