| High Flight |
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| High Flight By John G. Magee September 3, 1941 Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth And danced the skies on laughter-silver wings; Sunward I've climbed and done a hundred things You have not dreamed of... wheeled and soared and swung High in the sunlit silence hovering there, 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 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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| A short footnote: Flight Officer Macgee was born in Shanghai, China of missionary parents. His father was American and his mother was English. He spoke Chinese before he spoke English. John Magee was educated at Rugby school in England and at Avon Old Farms School in Connecticut. He won a Scholarship to Yale but instead joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in late 1940. He trained in Canada and was soon set to England. He flew in a Spitfire squadron and on one of his flights at 30,000 feet he started composing the poem "High Flight." Before he touched down he had completed it. John Mcgee was killed on a routine training mission on December 11, 1941. |
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