High Flight is a 1941 sonnet written by war poet John Gillespie Magee Jr. and inspired by his experiences as a fighter pilot of the Royal Canadian Air Force in World War II. Magee began writing the poem on 18 August, while stationed at No. 53 OTU outside London, and mailed a completed manuscript to his family on 3 September, three months before he died in a training accident. Originally published in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, it was widely distributed when Magee became one of the first post-Pearl Harbor American casualties of the war on 11 December, after which it was exhibited at the American Library of Congress in 1942. Owing to its gleeful and ethereal portrayal of aviation, along with its allegorical interpretation of death and transcendence, the poem has been featured prominently in aviation memorials across the world, including that of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.
Magee's manuscript of "High Flight", mailed to his parents on 3 September 1941.
Supermarine Spitfire like the one flown by John Magee
"High Flight" is inscribed in full on the back of the Space Shuttle Challenger Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery.
A plaque at St. Catharines/Niagara District Airport commemorates J G. Magee Jr.
John Gillespie Magee Jr. was a World War II Anglo-American Royal Canadian Air Force fighter pilot and war poet, who wrote the sonnet "High Flight". He was killed in an accidental mid-air collision over England in 1941.
Royal Canadian Air Force photo, 1941
Magee's grave
Magee's manuscript of "High Flight", mailed to his parents, signed and dated 3 September 1941 ("3•IX•41"). He would die three months later. NOTE that this version has had the Library of Congress markings digitally removed, to more closely resemble this letter's appearance when it was received by the Magee parents (click on this image to see the original).
