When the fan fiction series TaleSpin: High Flight was first conceived, this poem provided the title--and seemed to embody some of what the spirit of TaleSpin is all about.
In another significant twist, the name "John Magee" sounds an awful lot like "Joe Magee," the legendary pilot who aids Baloo in "The Old Man and The Sea Duck."
There is much more to tell about why we chose this particular poem, and this particular poet...but that is a story for another day.
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, nor 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.