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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 wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, nor 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 jr. was an American pilot and poet. He was born in Shanghai, China in 1922 to an American father and a British mother who worked as Anglican missionaries. John was educated at the American School in Nanking, China. In 1931 he moved with his mother to Britain where he continued his education at St. Clare's, Kent and then at Rugby School where he won the schools poetry prize in 1938.
The following year he moved to the United States to live with his aunt. He completed his schooling in Connecticut, graduating with honours and earning a scholarship to Yale University where his father was then a chaplain. However, he chose not to enroll and, at the age of 18, enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force in October 1939. Like thousands of other young Americans, he was knowingly breaking the law but with the tacit approval of the then officially neutral U.S. government, he was volunteering to fight the Nazis.
He trained at Trenton, St. Catharines, and Uplands and received his wings in June 1941. His officers noted he was, "a very good pilot prospect" but, "lacks discipline" and was "somewhat overconfident." His friends remember liking him and that Magee thought he could do anything, laughed a lot, and made them laugh.
He was sent to England for operational training in Llandow, Wales. Later that year he was posted to No. 412 Fighter Squadron, RCAF, stationed at Digby, England. The squadron operated Supermarine Spitfire aircraft flying fighter sweeps over France and participating in air defence over England against the Luftwaffe.
On 3 September, 1941, Magee flew a high altitude (30,000 feet) test flight in a new Spitfire Mk V. During the flight he was struck with the inspiration for a poem -"To touch the face of God." In a letter to his parents he wrote, "I am enclosing a verse I wrote the other day. It started at 30,000 feet, and was finished soon after I landed." On the back of the letter he had written his poem, "High Flight."
Magee was killed just three months later at the age of 19 just three days after the U.S. entered the war. At an altitude of about 400 feet, his Spitfire (marked VZ-H) collided in clouds with an Oxford trainer flown by Ernest Aubrey Griffin. At the inquiry afterwards, a farmer testified that he saw the Spitfire pilot struggling to push back the canopy. The pilot stood up to jump from the plane but was too close to the ground for his parachute to open and died instantly. The Oxford pilot was killed in the accident as well.
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In a letter to the Royal Canadian Air Force, John's parents wrote, "We gave our consent and blessing to John as he left us to enter the RCAF. We felt as deeply as he did and we were proud of his determination and spirit. We knew that such news as did come might come. When his sonnet (poem) reached us we felt then that it had a message for American youth but did not know how to get it before them. Now his death had emblazoned it across the entire country. We are thinking that this may have been a greater contribution than anything he may have done in he way of fighting. We will be forever proud of him."
The original copy of the poem was soon on display at the Library of Congress in Washington where it remains today. Copies of a poster with the poem, a portrait of John, and a drawing of a Spitfire were sent to every airfield in the British Empire and newspapers printed the poem. |
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