"(To those who gave their lives to England during the Battle of Britain and left such a shining example to us who follow, these lines are dedicated.)They that have climbed the white mists of the morning; They that have soared, before the world’s awake, To herald up their foeman to them, scorning The thin dawn’s rest their weary folk might take; Some that have left other mouths to tell the story Of high, blue battle, quite young limbs that bled, How they had thundered up the clouds to glory, Or fallen to an English field stained red. Because my faltering feet would fail I find them Laughing beside me, steadying the hand That seeks their deadly courage— Yet behind them The cold light dies in that once brilliant Land. ... Do these, who help the quickened pulse run slowly, Whose stern, remembered image cools the brow, Till the far dawn of Victory, know only Night’s darkness, and Valhalla’s silence now?"
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
"Per Ardua" (wr. November 1941); cp. ' ('Through adversity to the stars')
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Gillespie_Magee_Jr.
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
John Gillespie Magee Jr.
(9 June 1922 – 11 December 1941) was a Second World War Anglo-American fighter pilot and , who wrote the sonnet "High Flight". He was killed in an accidental mid-air collision over England in 1941.
3 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by John Gillespie Magee Jr. →
Related Quotes
"Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; Sunward I’ve climbed, an…"
"We laid him in a cool and shadowed grove One evening in the dreamy scent of thyme Where leaves were green, and whispe…"
"Alarms clang as a radarman tracks an attack craft that can jam radar and dart past flak at half a Mach: ack-ack-ack, …"
"Whenever Helen sleeps, her fevered rest meekens her; hence, she re-emerges enfeebled — her strength, expended; her re…"
"Lightning blinks, striking things in its midst with blinding light. Whirlwinds whirl; driftwinds drift. Spindrift is …"
"Loops on bold fonts now form lots of words for books. Books form cocoons of comfort – tombs to hold bookworms. Profs …"
"Duluth dump trucks lurch, pull U-turns. Such trucks dump much undug turf: clunk, clunk — thud. [...] Such pumps suck …"
"The cruel girls we loved Are over forty. Their subtle daughters Have stolen their beauty; And with a blue stare Of co…"
"I don’t believe that we could exist with one foot in two worlds. We have to be able to synthesize and be part of what…"
"one of the questions that I had in my writing was not so much about how to reorganize the material, but also how to w…"