High Flight

The sonnet “High Flight” is the most famous poem written by Anglo-American John Gillespie Magee Jr., a Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) pilot who served in World War II. The 19-year-old Magee wrote the poem on August 18, 1941, after a high-altitude test in his fighter plane. It was first published in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on November 12. Magee died that December in an accidental mid-air collision in the United Kingdom. After Magee's death, the poem was republished in various newspapers and appeared in a 1942 exhibit called “Poems of Faith and Freedom.” This solidified the poem’s importance and made Magee famous. The poem’s popularity has not dimmed and it is still widely loved by aviators. A copy of the poem was taken to the moon in Apollo 15 and it remains the official poem of the RCAF. The poem is routinely recited by cadets at the American Air Force Academy and is widely remembered as providing the poignant crescendo to President Ronald Reagan’s address to the public after the 1986 Challenger Space Shuttle disaster. Its last lines in particular remain widely quoted.

Poet Biography

John Gillespie Magee Jr. was born on June 9, 1922, in Shanghai, China where his parents were working as Christian missionaries for the Anglican Church. His father was John Gillespie Magee Sr., a reverend from a wealthy family in Pittsburgh, and his mother, Faith Emmeline Backhouse, was British. Magee was the eldest of four brothers.

In 1929, Magee began school in Nanking, China but in 1931, his siblings and mother moved to England, where his father would visit during furloughs. From 1931-1935, Magee studied at St. Clare before moving on to the Rugby School in 1935. While there he developed his love of poetry, and in 1938 he won the school poetry prize. During this time, he also fell in love with the headmaster’s daughter, Elinor Lyon, who would later go on to write children’s books. At the time, Lyon felt Magee was too young for her. They did, however, remain friends throughout Magee’s short life.

In 1939, Magee went back to the United States with a British friend to visit Martha’s Vineyard and his relatives in Pittsburgh. Due to the start of World War II, he was unable to receive a visa and was unable to accompany his friend back to England. He enrolled instead at the Avon Old Farms School in Connecticut, while residing with relatives. In his senior year, he was offered a scholarship to Yale University but postponed his enrollment to join the war effort.

Although Magee initially took a pacifist stance regarding the war, he decided that he wanted to help protect Britain and joined the RCAF in the fall of 1940. He trained in Ontario and earned his wings in June 1941. He visited his family in Washington, DC, shortly before going to London, where his father had become curate at Saint John’s Episcopal Church.

Magee was stationed at Llandow, Wales for high altitude training with the Spitfire fighter plane. In August, he flew his Spitfire to the altitude of 33,000 feet—an event that inspired the composition of “High Flight.” Magee sent the poem to his parents in a letter dated September 3, 1941. Historian Linda Granfield discovered that his aunt, Mary Scaife, sent it to The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which published the poem on November 12, 1941, albeit with errors (See: Further Reading & Resources).

In October 1941, Magee was assigned to the No. 412 squadron of fighter pilots, who trained at Digby, Lincolnshire. In October, while escorting bombers, the patrol planes were attacked by German fighter planes. Magee was the only pilot who survived. He continued on as part of convoy patrols until on December 11, 1941, he was killed in an accidental mid-air collision at the age of 19.

Magee was interred at Holy Cross Church on December 13, 1941. His father re-published “High Flight” in memoriam in church pamphlets for St. John’s that December. Poet Archibald MacLeish, then Librarian to Congress, further popularized the poem in 1942. The poem remains revered today, particularly by pilots and servicemen.

Poem Text

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 nor ever 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.

Magee, John Gillespie Jr. “High Flight.” 1941. Poetry Foundation.

Summary

The speaker of this sonnet discusses their gaining of altitude during “high flight” in an “eager craft” (Line 8) with “silvered wings” (Line 2). As the airplane ascends toward the sun, the pilot leaves the world’s trappings behind. Making loops in the air as they climb further, the speaker notes that they have done what many have not: traversed through the clouds. Whirling through the sky fills them with happiness, delight and awe. At the supreme altitude, with the plane “hov’ring there” (Line 6), the pilot experiences an epiphany, or a moment of insight. They realize that not only have they surpassed most humans’ experience, they have flown even higher than birds can fly. Within this new environment—soaring solo within a sacred space untouched by others—the speaker feels as if they can experience the Divine: They can “put out [a] hand, and touc[h] the face of God” (Line 14).