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. Hovering there, I've chased the shouting wind along and flung my eager craft thru footless halls of air.
Up, Up the long delirious burning blue I've topped the windswept 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.
Pilot MaGee composed the poem beginning at thirty thousand feet and had it complete before he touched down. It was written on an envelope. He died later in a training accident.
