[Vhfcn-l] "High Flight"

[r-rainwater at juno.com]

With the tragic loss in Dallas caused by the mid-air collision between the B-17 and P-63, the famous poem "High Flight" has burst forth in their honor.

For those who don't know its origins from an American airman flying with Canadians in the UK before the US's entry into the war, they are explained in the links below.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Flight

https://www.yourdailypoem.com/listpoem.jsp?poem_id=819

Note the *slight* difference between the two versions shown in these two links above:

"where never lark, or even eagle, flew"  vs.
"where never lark, or ever eagle, flew"

In the original handwritten version, in a letter to his parents, the "even/ever" question arose because of the different interpretation of the author's handwriting, easy to see in the first link.

These "poetry folks" prefer "ever":

https://blogs.loc.gov/catbird/2013/09/john-gillespie-magees-high-flight/

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/157986/high-flight-627d3cfb1e9b7

https://nationalpoetryday.co.uk/poem/high-flight/

I have come to prefer the "ever" version, albeit very late in life when I learned of it.

Lest we forget,

Ross Rainwater
C-1/9th, 1970-71