The sun shines brilliant on towers of glass
The crystalline trees tinkle in the wind
It would be better with you by my side,
That one red tower is what puzzles me.
This is a place that people only dream about,
The sun shines brilliant on towers of glass --Andrew Ellis
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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 halls of air. Up, up the long delirious burning blue I've topped the windswept height with easy grace Where never lark, nor 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.
--John Gillespie Magee, Jr.
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I believe this man experienced what can, truly, be called "Dragon Flight"! In December 1941, Pilot Officer Magee, a 19-year-old American serving with the Royal Canadian Air Force in England, was killed when his Spitfire collided with another airplane inside a cloud during the Battle of Britain. Discovered among his personal effects was this sonnet, written on the back of a letter at the time he was in flying school at Farnborough, England. Portions of this poem appear on the headstones of many interred in Arlington National Cemetery, particularly aviators and astronauts |