My favourite poem
I was never one who appreciated poetry but as I have grown older I have also grown to appreciate it. This is my favourite! Have you got one?
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.
The Poet was a young Canadian Fighter Pilot in the 1940's fighting to defend us against the Germans.
John Gillespie Magee Jnr
Sadly he was shot down and killed within a few months of writing this.
TF