4/05/2006

To Slip the Surly Bonds of Earth

From the myths of Daedalus and Icarus to the flying machines of Leonardo Da Vinci, there has long been a fascination with flying. One of my dreams is to take flying lessons. In the meantime, I'll have to be satisfied with taking pictures of planes.


I shot this bi-plane today while at Biloxi Small Craft Harbor.Thanks to joe for identifying it as Pitt's S2A


"High Flight"

by John Gillespie Magee

[Magee was a fighter pilot with the Royal Canadian Air Force when he wrote the following poem. He was killed at age 19 when shot down in the World War II Battle of Britain. The poem has been a favorite of pilots, and was carried to the Moon by several of the Apollo astronauts.]

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 untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.


I took this shot of a C21 today.



The dream to lift the bonds of surly earth has come true for many.

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

rachy,

It's a beautiful poem.

8:54 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hope I'm not getting myself into a lying jag here.
But, Redbird looks like a Pitts S2A. :)

http://images.google.com/images?q=Pitts+s2a&hl=en

9:50 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

joe,

Thanks! I wasn't sure what it was.

5:24 AM  

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