High Flight

One of my Christmas presents was a print of this WWII poem ...

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 unsurpassed sanctity of space,
Put out out my hand and touched
The face of God.

Pilot Officer Gillespie Magee Junior
No. 412 Squadron RCAF, killed on December 11 1941.