Interpretation of the Poem

The Breakdown of “High Flight” by John Gillespie Magee, Jr. RCAF

When people speak of poetry, they might say things like “poetry is snapshots of ideas.” John Gillespie’s engaging and entertaining sonnet High Flight inspires the imagination, and stimulates the mind with snapshots of many wonderful ideas. The human race has always dreamt of flight, and this poem gives the reader reminiscent thoughts of these fantasies. It is a masterful accomplishment on almost every aspect. It is hard to believe that such inspiring words came from such a young author.

John Gillespie Magee was an American who served in the Canadian air force. He was born in China in 1922. His parents were missionaries, his mother being a British citizen. In 1939 when he came to the United States, he won a scholarship to Yale but instead opted to join the air force. In 1941, Magee composed this poem and sent a copy to his parents, a few months before he was killed in a mid-air collision. He was only nineteen years old. John Gillespie Magee, Jr. was buried at a church cemetery in Lincolnshire.

High Flight is a sonnet, meaning that it is a form of poem in fourteen lines, ten syllables in each line. As a pilot, Gillespie wanted to express the emotion he felt when flying. He uses rhymes and descriptive stanzas to make the poetry flow more smoothly. Given that the reader had no idea what the title of this work was, he or she could infer what it is about based on lines two and eight. Line two says “And danced the skies on laughter silvered wings” implying that he was indeed flying and enjoying it. When he says “my eager craft through footless halls of air,” he again is definitely talking about an aircraft. The phrase “footless halls of air” demonstrates the usage of imagery, meaning that he is at a very high altitude, probably in some clouds. His chosen rhyme scheme is also very interesting, the last vowels of every other sentence rhyme with each other.

One can be lead to believe that the author is indeed talking about his future death and passage to heaven, using his flying experience and descriptive phrases as a metaphor. The poem signifies the difference between the spiritual flight and the physical flight. In the very last line, Gillespie says “Put out my hand, and touched the face of God” implying that this poem is indeed about a pilot’s