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High Flight (an Airman's Ecstasy)
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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 windswept 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
Read poems about / on: laughter, silence, wind, sun, god, dance, dream, sky
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Ripper Moore (4/4/2008 1:43:00 PM)
Long ago, a literature teacher told me that a poem should have rhyme and meter, but be read or recited in such a way that the listener is largely unaware of it. This is easier with some poems than others, of course. The U.S. Air Force used to run a sort of commercial, wherein you saw a jet fighter (F-11 Starfighter I think) flying amid sun-split clouds and footless halls of air, while a deep sonorous voice recited this poem. He did it so well that I honestly did not realize it rhymed until I saw it in print. It made a profound impression at the time, and this poem remains one of the most beautiful and evocative I have ever heard. I only recently learned that Magee wrote this when he was only nineteen, and that he died in an air accident a month afterwards. So sad, and such a tragedy for the world- think what he might have written by now... learning that made me appreciate the poem even more. |
Sherry Malone (3/31/2008 11:28:00 PM)
This poem has been in my heart since 1968 after hearing it for the first time at Upper Heyford England Air Force Base... I am a Military BRAT and proud of it.
1973 I lived at Eglin AFB, Florida and at midnight when a certain TV channel was signing off the National Athem was played with the background being Air Force Jets soaring thru the heavens with HIGH FLIGHT being recited by a deep voice.. Oh the chills it would bring to me... I live far away from any Military base but I do live within 5 minutes from Bristol Motorspeedway in Tenn. and each Nascar Event the Blue Angels do a fly over and each time I watch these marvelous machines fly over I can hear this poem in my heart and still get the chills of great pride of the USA.... I guess becuase I relate to this poem from my childhood.
I am so thankful I have found it once again to be able to share it with friends and family..... |
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