Editing High Flight (section)

{{Short description|1941 poem by John Magee Jr.}}
{{about|the poem|the 1957 British film|High Flight (film)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2024}}
{{Infobox poem
| name              = High Flight
| image             = High Flight - John Gillespie Magee, Jr poem manuscript (LOC markings removed).jpg
| image_size        = 
| caption           = Magee's manuscript of "High Flight", mailed to his parents on 3 September 1941.
| subtitle          = 
| author            = John Gillespie Magee Jr.
| original_title    = 
| original_title_lang = 
| translator        = 
| written           = {{start date and age|1941|08|p=yes|br=yes}}
| first             = 
| illustrator       = 
| cover_artist      = 
| country           = 
| language          = English
| series            = 
| subject           = [[Aviation]]
| genre             = 
| form              = [[Sonnet]]
| meter             = [[Iambic pentameter]]
| rhyme             = 
| publisher         = 
| publication_date  = 
| media_type        = Handwritten
| lines             = 14
| pages             = 
| size_weight       = 
| isbn              = 
| oclc              = 
| preceded_by       = 
| followed_by       = 
| wikisource        = High Flight
}}[[File:High Flight.ogg|thumb|Reading of the poem "High Flight"]]

'''''High Flight''''' is a 1941 [[sonnet]] written by [[war poet]] [[John Gillespie Magee Jr.]] and inspired by his experiences as a [[fighter pilot]] of the [[Royal Canadian Air Force]] in [[World War II]].  Magee began writing the poem on 18 August, while stationed at [[List of Royal Air Force Operational Training Units|No. 53 OTU]] outside [[London]], and mailed a completed manuscript to his family on 3 September, three months before he died in a training accident. Originally published in the ''[[Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]]'', it was widely distributed when Magee became one of the first post-[[Attack on Pearl Harbor|Pearl Harbor]] American casualties of the war on 11 December,<ref>{{Cite web|last=Armenti|first=Peter|date=2013-09-03|title=John Gillespie Magee's "High Flight" {{!}} From the Catbird Seat: Poetry & Literature at the Library of Congress|url=https://blogs.loc.gov/catbird/2013/09/john-gillespie-magees-high-flight/|access-date=2022-02-01|website=blogs.loc.gov}}</ref> after which it was exhibited at the American [[Library of Congress]] in 1942.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b3330766&view=1up&seq=59&skin=2021|title=Annual Report of the Librarian of Congress for the Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1942|publisher=[[Library of Congress]]|year=1943|access-date={{today}}}}</ref> Owing to its gleeful and ethereal portrayal of aviation, along with its [[Allegory|allegorical interpretation]] of death and transcendence, the poem has been featured prominently in aviation memorials across the world, including that of the [[Space Shuttle Challenger disaster|Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' disaster]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Tearle |first=Oliver |date=2019-12-15 |title=A Short Analysis of John Gillespie Magee's 'High Flight (An Airman's Ecstasy)' |url=https://interestingliterature.com/2019/12/analysis-john-gillespie-magee-high-flight-an-airmans-ecstasy/ |access-date=2022-10-19 |website=Interesting Literature |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Coulson |first=Jamie |date=23 February 2007 |title=Inside Out - Yorkshire and Lincolnshire: Fighter pilot poet |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/yorkslincs/series11/week7_poem_flying.shtml}}</ref>

{{quote box
| width = 45%
| title = High Flight
| title_bg = BlanchedAlmond
| title_fnt = SaddleBrown
| bgcolor = Cornsilk
| align = center
| halign = center
| source = 
| quote = <poem>: "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."
</poem>
}}