The Buckley School's founder believed that all public speakers should hone their presentation skills by reading poetry out loud. We keep that worthwhile practice alive by including a poem in our magazine each month for you to read aloud. Above, a photo of John Gillespie Magee, Jr. in a Spitfire during his training, from the Canada Archive and Library.
"We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God."
– from Ronald Reagan's Challenger Disaster speech
The son of missionaries, John Gillespie Magee, Jr. was born in Shanghai, them moved to England while a boy. The child of an American father and British mother, he attended Rugby School and won the school's Poetry Prize before heading to the United States and Yale.
But with the world at war, Magee's university plans changed. He joined the Royal Canadian Air Force and was sent back to England for training. Magee never saw combat. He died in a mid-air collision during a training flight. The year was 1941, and Magee was just 19 years old.
His poem, "High Flight" was inspired by a test flight, and he sent a copy of it to his parents. They published it after his death.
The poem Magee sent to his parents is in the U.S. Library of Congress.
Many people will recognize his lines from a speech delivered by U.S. President Ronald Reagan in response to the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion. Speechwriter Peggy Noonan added Magee's lines to Reagan's speech, and it's reported that Reagan was hesitant to use them. He was skeptical that the words of a 19-year-old poet could strike the right tone. Yet, those lines are a part of the speech that many recall and quote.
Its description of flying makes it a popular poem among aviators and astronauts. "High Flight" is the official poem of both the Royal Canadian Air Force and the Royal Air Force. Cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy are required to recite it from memory.
Here is Magee's poem, below, for you to read out loud.
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.
