September 15 1940

[steelsporran]

Today is the 73rd anniversary, an appropriate day to post the official poem of the RAF:

"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, Jr.
Pilot Officer RCAF

[PeteP]

Always good to read High Flight, the joyous outpourings of one who'd barely left his boyhood behind and written immediately after the most exiting experience of his young life - what today might be described as "a legal high"!

Good as it is, it's a pity that Magee is remembered by most for those verses alone. In late 1941 he sent his parents a (possibly unfinished) new poem about those who had fought in the Battle which he described as "another trifle". So, for Battle of Britain Day, I offer John Gillespie Magee Jr's "Per Ardua".

"Per Ardua"

(To those who gave their lives to England during the Battle of Britain and left such a shining example to us who follow, these lines are dedicated.)

"They that have climbed the white mists of the morning;
They that have soared, before the world's awake,
To herald up their foeman to them, scorning
The thin dawn's rest their weary folk might take;

Some that have left other mouths to tell the story
Of high, blue battle, quite young limbs that bled,
How they had thundered up the clouds to glory,
Or fallen to an English field stained red.

Because my faltering feet would fail I find them
Laughing beside me, steadying the hand
That seeks their deadly courage –
Yet behind them
The cold light dies in that once brilliant Land ....

Do these, who help the quickened pulse run slowly,
Whose stern, remembered image cools the brow,
Till the far dawn of Victory, know only
Night's darkness, and Valhalla's silence now?"

[dodger]

Hi ,

I am not one for Poems but i do have "High Flight" framed on my PC room wall and when i go down to stoke the Boilers [ i certainly won't be playing a Harp} i have asked the wife to have it read out,

Cheers,

Roger.

[Airspeed]

I am all for poetry, Roger, not that my efforts are equal to the above, but it can be a very satisfying way to express feelings.

[nigelb]

Touching tributes to the few! Thanks for posting those.

Nigel²

[Airspeed]

Thanks, John & Pete,
I've seen "High Flight" before, of course, so I'm especially taken by Pete's contribution.
I will be putting copies up in the museum out the back.

[PeteP]

I will be putting copies up in the museum out the back.

Great, Mike - I think it deserves to be much better known than it is. I came across it 3 years ago when researching material for a radio programme to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Battle but, to my shame, I never completed the programme. It is, though, pencilled in for broadcast on Angel on the 75th anniversary in 2015!
Best
Pete

[Airspeed]

You may recall that I enjoyed your previous memorial broadcast.
I hope that they'll let me tune in from Aus again in 2015!

[PeteP]

I do, indeed, remember your kind email to the radio station Mike and if you tune in from Aus again that'll guarantee to double my listener figures at a stroke!
Pete