Farthingale Publications

High Flight


Poignant Verse by Pilot Officer Gillespie Magee

pic 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 untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.

pic Pilot Officer Gillespie Magee of No 412 squadron, RCAF: was an American officer serving with the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War 2. Born in Shanghai, in 1922, he was the son of missionary parents, the Reverend and Mrs John Gillespie Magee; his father was American, his mother originally a British citizen. He arrived in the United States in 1939 and earned a scholarship to Yale, but enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force in September 1940 and graduated as a pilot. He was sent to England for combat duty in July 1941, composing "High Flight" in August or September 1941 and sending a copy to his parents. Several months later, on December 11, 1941, his Spitfire collided with another plane over England, and Magee crashed to his death at the age of only 19 years. He is buried in the churchyard at Scopwick, Lincolnshire.

pic Farthingale Publications: ..... Is a hobby web site containing articles of local interest to Lancastrians, some favourite walking and cycling routes, selected words and poetry, and some writings of more general nature as well as the authors own picture gallery. Access is available via the homepage and menu at the head of the page or via one of the direct links below.


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