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 Spitfire through footless halls of air....
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy skills
Where never lark or even eagle flew —
And, while with silent lifting mind I have trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,