He was RCAF in the beginning, then RAF, I think. One American, one Canadian
parent? Died in a training accident in 1941. He also wrote an excellent eulogy
to Rupert Brooke.
Sonnet to Rupert Brooke
by John Gillespie Magee
"We laid him in a cool and shadowed grove
One evening in the dreamy scent of thyme
Where leaves were green, and whispered high above —
A grave as humble as it was sublime;
There, dreaming in the fading deeps of light —
The hands that thrilled to touch a woman's hair;
Brown eyes, that loved the Day, and looked on Night,
A soul that found at last its answered Prayer...
There daylight, as a dust, slips through the trees.
And drifting, gilds the fern around his grave —
Where even now, perhaps, the evening breeze
Steals shyly past the tomb of him who gave
New sight to blinded eyes; who sometimes wept —
A short time dearly loved; and after, — slept."
> On Aug 29, 2016, at 2:36 AM, ChrisB <ftog@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> :-)
>
> Most of the time you see High Flight, framed and on a wall, it is from a USAF
> exchange officer who has left it as a parting gift. I hadn’t heard of the
> poem until I visited a USAF F15 squadron at Bitburg in Germany.
>
> When we visited the Air Forces Memorial at Runymede
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Forces_Memorial> (some years ago) I’m
> pretty sure that I saw Magee’s name there, although he has a grave in
> Lincolnshire, it appears.
>
> Chris
>
>> On 28 Aug 16, at 16:31, Bob Whitmire <fujixbob@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>
>> I remember that. I see that I liked it at the time.
>>
>> Did all RAF trainee pilots have to memorize High Flight?
>>
>> I never got to drive anything more complex than a duce-and-a-half, a 2.5
>> ton truck. Barrel rolls were a bitch!
>
> --
> _________________________________________________________________
> Options: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/listinfo/olympus
> Archives: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/private/olympus/
> Themed Olympus Photo Exhibition: http://www.tope.nl/
>
--
_________________________________________________________________
Options: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/listinfo/olympus
Archives: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/private/olympus/
Themed Olympus Photo Exhibition: http://www.tope.nl/
|