High Flight TPCASTT
Noah Turner
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 even 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 Magee
Title
He is in a Dog Fight with enemy planes.
The experience of an Air Force Veteran.
Paraphrase
And been in happiness while flying
He's flown towers the sun and joined the sky
He has done things people could have only dreamt of doing.
He has flown in the silence of the sky
He has chased wind and flown with the clouds
He has climbed through the sky and topped the wind
Where no animal has flown before
While he silently flys he finds paradise.
Connotation
Grace; meaning he has topped the sky with ease.
Mirth; meaning he is tumbling through the sky with laughter and joy.
Sanctity; meaning he is in his paradise, or he is in a happy and peaceful place up in the air.
Attitude of Speaker
Shifts
Between lines 11 & 12; He goes from talking about gracefully flying through the sky to reflecting on his feelings about how his experience of flying. He says it is like touching the face of God, like a paradise.