November 11, Remembering
Too many wars, too many young men dying. Too much waste of lives, civilian and military.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, or ever 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
The author of that transcendingly beautiful poem was a young American who had, despite his youth, crossed into Canada and enlisted with the Royal Canadian Air Force. He was one among many young Americans who did this even though the U.S. was not yet entered into the Second World War. JohnMagee Jr., was born in Shanghai. His mother British, his father American, of Scotch-Irish derivation.
When he entered flight training he was 18, then sent to England and posted to No.412 Fighter Squadron RCAF, activated at Digby, England, June 1941. He flew the Supermarine Spitfire in sweeps over France and air defence over England against the Luftwaffe, rising to the rank of pilot officer. In September of 1941, he flew a high altitude test flight in a newer Spitfire V. He orbited, climbing upward and was inspired.
Later, in a letter to his parents he enclosed a poem, composed during the flight, committed to memory, then to paper on landing. He spoke of the poem as enabling him "to touch the face of God". It has since inspired all those who have read it, and it has been quoted innumerable times by many people and on occasion in the initial launch of space craft, which must most surely seem to 'touch the face of God'; the universe at the very least.
On December 11, 1941, as the U.S. was on the cusp of entering the war, the Spitfire V he was flying collided with an Oxford Trainer, and Pilot Officer John GillespieMagee Jr., was killed at the age of 19.Labels: Heroes and Villains, Realities, That's Life
posted by Pieface @ Sunday, November 11, 2007
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