The Poetry of flight

In my opinion, this is the best poetry ever written about flying.

The author flew for the RAF during the Battle of Britain.

He did not survive the war, but he left us this…

 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 spun, high in the sunlit silence
 Up, up the long delirious burning blue,
 I’ve topped the windswept heights with ease,
 Where never lark or even eagle flew.
 Hovering there I’ve chased the shouting winds along,
 Through footless halls of air.
 And, while with silent, lifted mind,
 I’ve trod the high untrespassed sanctity of space;
 Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
                          J.Magee, R.A.F.1940

(photo from Steve Nimmons)