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 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.

This poem was  written by John Gillespie Magee, Junior (June 9, 1922 – December 11, 1941) He was an Anglo-American aviator and poet who died as a result of a mid-air collision over Lincolnshire during World War II. He was serving in the Royal Canadian Air Force, which he joined before the United States officially entered the war.

President Reagan, in a moving broadcast to the nation after the space shuttle Challenger exploded in 1986 paraphrased the poem: "We will never forget them nor the last time we saw them this morning as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and 'slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God.' "

Portions of this poem appear on many headstones in Arlington National Cemetery. It serves as the official poem of the Royal Canadian Air Force and Royal Air Force and it is required to be recited by memory by first-year cadets at the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) where it is also depicted in its Field House.

We thought it appropriate to share it with you this Memorial Day....

MCA