High Flight is a popular poem for aviators and astronauts alike, and is also the official poem of the Royal Air Force and Royal Canadian Air Force. Portions of the poem frequently appear on the headstones of Arlington National Cemetary. A powerful poem written only a few months before John Gillespie Magee Jr.'s death in December of 1941, High Flight is about spirituality and escaping the bounds of Earth and flying higher than ever before thanks to the invention of the airplane. Rather than warning man of their hubris, such as in the story of Daedalus and Icarus, this poem celebrates exploring the unknown and flying to the skies' limits. My musical setting attempts to bring these ideas to life.
This was written for and is dedicated to my friend, Brendon Lewis, who premiered the work on February 21, 2021 at the Hartt School's Public Works Concert.
Text
High Flight
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 wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever 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.
- John Gillespie Magee Jr. (1941)
Recordings
Performance History
Featured on the 2025 Album ___ Bird - Link
Kristina Terwilliger, soprano, Leonardo L. Leuci, piano, Garden State Singers New Works Concert, First Presbyterian Church, Ridgefield Park, NJ, September, 20, 2025
Brendon Lewis, tenor, Sequoia Sounds, piano, Hartt Public Works Concert Series, Online Concert, February 21, 2021