| High Flight | |
|---|---|
| by John Gillespie Magee Jr. | |
.jpg) Magee's manuscript of "High Flight", mailed to his parents on 3 September 1941. | |
| Written | August 1941 |
| Language | English |
| Subject(s) | Aviation |
| Form | Sonnet |
| Meter | Iambic pentameter |
| Media type | Handwritten |
| Lines | 14 |
| Full text | |
 High Flight at Wikisource | |
High Flight is a 1941 sonnet written by war poet John Gillespie Magee Jr. and inspired by his experiences as a fighter pilot of the Royal Canadian Air Force in World War II. Magee began writing the poem on 18 August, while stationed at No. 53 OTU outside London, and mailed a completed manuscript to his family on 3 September, three months before he died in a training accident. Originally published in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, it was widely distributed when Magee became one of the first post-Pearl Harbor American casualties of the war on 11 December,[1] after which it was exhibited at the American Library of Congress in 1942.[2] Owing to its gleeful and ethereal portrayal of aviation, along with its allegorical interpretation of death and transcendence, the poem has been featured prominently in aviation memorials across the world, including that of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.[3][4]
"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."
- ^ Armenti, Peter (3 September 2013). "John Gillespie Magee's "High Flight" | From the Catbird Seat: Poetry & Literature at the Library of Congress". blogs.loc.gov. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
- ^ Annual Report of the Librarian of Congress for the Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1942. Library of Congress. 1943. Retrieved 16 November 2024.
- ^ Tearle, Oliver (15 December 2019). "A Short Analysis of John Gillespie Magee's 'High Flight (An Airman's Ecstasy)'". Interesting Literature. Retrieved 19 October 2022.
- ^ Coulson, Jamie (23 February 2007). "Inside Out - Yorkshire and Lincolnshire: Fighter pilot poet".