Monday, May 28, 2012

Remembered



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 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

2 comments:

Tom Porter said...

Thank you for this beautiful poem, Larry. I've never known - been too lazy to research, I guess - whence Reagan plucked these beautiful lines.

Larry Kelley said...

Just a few months after he wrote it John Gillespie Magee, Jr died in a mid air crash about a week after we entered WW2.

He was only 19.