High Flight" by Major John Gillepsie Magee. Major Magee was an American/British fighter pilot, and the poem was written on the back of an envelope of a letter to his parents



High Flight - by Major John Gillespie Magee

Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies of 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. Hovering 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.

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