by John Gillespie Magee Jr.
(Editor’s Note: Like all Americans, we were saddened by the tragic deaths of Columbia’s seven astronauts. In memory of and to honor these brave men and women, Kalpana Chawla, William McCool, Ilan Ramon, Rick Husband, Laurel Clark, David Brown, and Michael Anderson, we reprint the following.)
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 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.