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 sun lit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, the long delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind swept heights with easy grace,
Where never lark, or even eagle flew;
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
In December 1941, Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee, Jr., a 19 year old American serving with the Royal Canadian Air Force in England, was killed when his Spitfire collided with another aircraft inside a cloud. Several months before his death, he composed this immortal sonet, a copy of which he fortunately mailed to his parents in the United States.