High Flight

High Flight by John Gillespie McGee

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 even eagle flew --
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high un-trespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

The first and final lines, "Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth..Put out my hand and touched the face of God," were quoted by President Ronald Reagan thirty years ago on January 28 after the explosion of the space shuttle CHALLENGER, which took the lives of all the astronauts aboard.