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"High Flight" |
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Written by RCAF Flight-Lieutenant John
Gillespie Magee Jr. (1922-1941) |
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Oh,
I have slipped the surly bonds of earth |
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And
danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; |
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Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth |
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Of
sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things |
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You
have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung |
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High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there, |
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I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung |
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My
eager craft through footless halls of air. |
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Up,
up the long, delirious burning blue, |
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I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace |
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Where never lark, or even eagle flew. |
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And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod |
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The
high untresspassed sanctity of space, |
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Put
out my hand, and touched the face of God. |
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