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 on the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung,
My eager craft through footless falls 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.

Written by Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee  R.C.A.F.
(Spitfire Pilot in 1941 later killed in an aircraft collision).