The author of this poem, John Gillespie Magee, Jr., was an American aviator who died flying in World War II. The poem was written after a training exercise where Magee reached 33,000 feet in a Spitfire Mk 1, and he was inspired by the words “…and touched the face of God,” which he had heard in a poe...
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 sun-lit silence. Hovering 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 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.