I attended the funeral today of Gordon Cheesbrough, a dear friend; he had lived a long and fulfilled life, and served his country during the war, flying Spitfires. At the commemoration service, a poem was read by a friend of his which was appropriate in many ways to the life we were celebrating.
The poet was John Gillespie Magee who also flew Spitfires during the war. He was born the same year as Gordon, but tragically he died at the age of only nineteen in a flying accident.
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.John Gillespie Magee
I came across a very interesting article about Magee and this sonnet:
http://www.qunl.com/rees0008.html
Lois Elsden 