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 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.
by John Gillespie Magee, Jr. (The Pilot Poet)
"Per Ardua ad Astra"
("Through Struggles to the Stars")