HIGH FLIGHT
John Gillespie Magee, Jr
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.
*
Footnote: Wikipedia
John Gillespie Magee, Jr. (9 June 1922 – 11 December 1941) was an American[4] 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. He is most famous for his poem High Flight.
(Both Mary Shelley author of Frankenstein and John Gillespie
Magee Jr wrote masterpieces at the age of 19)
(A Cleveland Ohio tv station used to shut off around 2am, closing
out the last day with the audio of this poem.)
https://www.postpoems.org/forum/open-for-various-styles/espresso-house-critiques/1102895
http://flyingforyourlife.com/pilots/ww2/ma/magee/magee_brunhilde.jpg