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A POETIC DISCOVERY
A POETIC DISCOVERY
In the 1980s, I visited a London pub popular with RAF aircrew during World War 2. Amongst the memorabilia on the wall was a framed poem - ‘High Flight’ by John Gillespie Magee, a 19 year-old Royal Canadian Air Force Spitfire pilot who wrote the poem in 1941, describing his experiences of flying a Spitfire at high altitude. Such is the poem’s beauty that it has become one of the most celebrated verses of the Second World War; it’s especially favoured by those who love flying and are captivated by the joy of flight. From the moment I read the poem, I dreamed of flying in a Spitfire, but never thought I would do so.
High Flight
By John Gillespie Magee
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, 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.
By John Gillespie Magee
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, 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.
John Gillespie Magee, RCAF, author of the poem ‘High Flight’. (Photograph : Wikimedia Commons plus courtesy of Roger Cole & High Flight Publishing)
John Magee at RAF Wellingore, with his Spitfire, ‘Brunhilde’. (Photograph and poem, ‘High Flight , courtesy of Roger Cole and High Flight Publishing)
