Our post on A P-51 named February moved us to post Magee's well-known sonnet, High Flight
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.
RCAF Spitfire pilot Magee, an American, was killed in an airplane accident during the Battle of Britain, 1941, age 19. He told his mother that the final verse came to him at 30,000 feet, and that he finished the poem on his way down.