I saw this poem while waiting at an airport. The images in it are vivid and uplifting; the language creative and powerful.
This is a poem, perhaps, can only be written by a pilot who has a genuine love for the sky and who can truly feel the delight of 'High Flight'!
High Flight
John Gillespie Magee Jr.
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.
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Topics:
Research, from .edu web sources, to get key info of this poem and John G. Magee:
This is a poem, perhaps, can only be written by a pilot who has a genuine love for the sky and who can truly feel the delight of 'High Flight'!
High Flight
John Gillespie Magee Jr.
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.
+ + + + + + + +
Topics:
Research, from .edu web sources, to get key info of this poem and John G. Magee:
- Use the 'explication' method to understand the poem. To you, what message does the poem intend to deliver? Find the key interpretation of its theme by a scholar or scholarly source.
- Who is Magee? Find info of his personal life, from birth, and family, education, etc.
- Find info of his professional career.
- Find info of his political views and religious beliefs.
- Find info of his writing--how he writes, what topics he writes about, etc.
- Find info of his major publication #1--content, theme,and controversy.
- Find info of his major publication #2--content, theme, and controversy.
- Find info of his major publication #3--content, theme, and controversy.
- Find top 2 scholars who have studies and published Magee--give the names and 2 articles.
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